Rose Potter & The Goblet of Fire
by Duvainthel
Summary: WARNING: This is a work with prequels. If you are familiar with the work from AO3 go right ahead. If not I advise you to start at the beginning: /s/13026279/1/Rose-Potter-and-The-Sorcerer-s-Stone
1. Chapter 1: The Invitation

Rose woke with a start. Green light branded in her eyes.

She eyed her room on high alert, scanning every detail. From Hedwig's empty cage to her open trunk where her school supplies were clearly visible.

After seeing that her room was as it should be, namely empty, she sank back into her pillow.

Ever since she got back from Hogwarts last year she's been having the same old dreams that haunted her when she was little. Only this time, thanks to the dementors last year, she could hear her mother pleading and a high-pitched voice before a bright green light woke her up.

Sadly, it didn't stay with those old dreams, now she was haunted by aunt Marge chasing her through the house, jolting awake with phantom pains.

Rose grunted.

Those memories still overwhelmed her and she'll be glad to leave the house that's causing them. Because Rose was sure it was the house that was causing them.

Sometimes while doing chores, Rose would stand and look at a specific part of the room and get suddenly sucked into a very vivid memory.

She'd shake and brake out in a sweat, the adrenaline coursing through her body because of it. Of course, dropping whatever she was holding in her hands.

Surprisingly, the Dursley's didn't comment and Petunia simply didn't let her do the dishes anymore.

The atmosphere in the house had changed greatly compared to last year.

There already had been some improvement since Rose saved the cake from dropping on the head of their guest's head because of Dobby but now it was getting… strange.

They stopped giving her so many chores she would be exhausted at the end of the day. Petunia had taken Rose to go shopping for clothes, new clothes and it wasn't even her birthday.

They didn't tell her to fetch, store, throw away, clean up anything anymore. Instead they'd send Dudley more and more to do those things.

Now it could be related to the fact that his school had sent them a notice that basically said their son was fat and it was getting unhealthy. But Rose never expected it to have such a positive influence on their treatment towards her.

Rose still didn't feel the warmth she felt like when she was with the Weasleys but it was a great improvement none the less.

Rose looked at her alarm clock and it was 8 am. With a sigh, she disentangled herself from her sheets and went downstairs.

The hallway was filled with Dudley's snoring and the tempered voices from Petunia and Vernon downstairs. While descending the stairs, Rose yawned and sleepily rubbed her eyes. She sometimes cursed the fact that she always woke up this early. When her foot touched the hallway floor, leaving the stairs her eyes started to refocus and her whole body froze up.

Her neck hairs stood on end and an ice-cold shiver ran down her spine.

Aunt Marge was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

Belt in hand, evil grin plastered on her face.

Tremors violently shook through Rose's body and she was glued to the ground, unable to move a muscle.

A whimper escaped her lips.

Her nails were boring themselves in her palms.

Rose's breath became uneven, her heart pounding in her ears.

She wanted to bolt, to flee. But she couldn't move.

"Rose?"

Vernon's voice rolled over her and Rose snapped back in the present.

Shuddering at the cold shiver, finally breaking out of her frozen stance.

Vernon was frowning at her and Rose finally moved.

Muttering a sorry and suppressing another shiver while passing Vernon towards the kitchen.

Petunia eyed her, also with a frown on her face and then refocused on making breakfast.

Rose sat down at her spot and tried to ride the last shivers out without drawing attention.

She didn't know how long she was staring at the same spot on the table before seeing a mug being placed in her eyesight.

She looked at it and was surprised to find chocolate milk in it.

"Drink it. You look pale."

Rose looked up in surprise and saw aunt Petunia looking at her with a frown.

"Go ahead. Please finish it before Dudley comes down." Petunia turned her attention back to the breakfast she was preparing. Since the note from Dudley's school things had changed drastically for Dudley, most important part his food.

After some screaming and shouting – and stomping that had shook the house – everyone was put on a diet. Because of course, they didn't want Dudley to feel bad about it – which he did – so no one was allowed to eat what Dudley couldn't eat.

The diet was sent by the school and it hung on the fridge. Which really didn't have anything good in it anymore. Everything from soda to chocolate had been replaced by fruit and vegetables.

Things that Uncle Vernon called 'rabbit food'.

This is why Rose had to shake herself out of a stupor after Petunia's gesture. This was the first time, the very first time that Rose got something that Dudley wasn't allowed to have. A privilege and it rendered Rose utterly baffled for a few seconds.

Rose recovered quickly however and started to drink from her hot mug of chocolate milk. She felt it warm her bones and Rose suddenly realized that her last dose of chocolate had been since the hospital wing in Hogwarts.

While the warm feeling started to spread, she had to wonder if the nightmares came because she wasn't eating any chocolate. Where they a side-effect from a Dementor almost kissing her? Rose couldn't tell and made a mental note to ask about it.

When the mug was empty Petunia made quick work of plucking it from her fingers and washing it out.

Which was a good thing because a few seconds after she had put the mug back, Dudley waggled into the room, followed by Vernon.

When everyone sat down at the table Petunia brought a plate of peeled grapefruits to the tables and started cutting them up in even parts.

At the sight of this, Dudley looked furious. Rose could swear Dudley was sucking all the light out of the room, almost like the sky preparing for a storm.

When Aunt Petunia put a quarter of unsweetened grapefruit onto Dudley's plate with a tremulous "There you are, Diddy darling." Dudley's eyes almost shot bullets.

Aunt Petunia passed a grapefruit part to Rose and Rose – with the taste of chocolate still on her tongue – took it without complaint.

When everyone was done, Vernon went back to reading his paper and Dudley turned on the television. After the dishes where put away, Rose wanted to wander of, thinking about what to do for the rest of the day, since Petunia hadn't given her any chores.

"Rose, would you come with me please?" Petunia suddenly stopped Rose.

"Sure, aunt Petunia."

Correction… apparently, she did have chores.

Petunia walked to the bathroom and Rose followed her, wondering what she had to do.

But instead of chores Petunia had something else in mind.

Petunia picked up a brush and signaled to a chair.

"I'm going to brush your hair, I can see the knots from here."

Rose frowned, Petunia had never brushed her hair. Well not since she could do it herself. Rose sat down hesitantly and prepared for a rough treatment, but was surprised again when aunt Petunia started brushing her hair gently.

Silence rung in Rose's ears while she tried to figure out why Petunia was doing this. Her hair wasn't that bad, was it? Not since the magical brush.

"Your hair is just like your mothers." Petunia broke the silence.

Rose sucked in air, in surprise and forced herself to be very still, hoping to hear more.

"I used to brush her hair as well, when we were little. I always loved playing with her hair."

Rose's heartbeat was almost pounding in her throat.

Silence filled the room again and Rose was wondering if she would speak up again.

"We got a letter before you returned." Petunia continued. Rose could tell her voice suddenly became sharper.

"A letter from… from your headmaster. It explained what had happened this year. What you remember now…"

Rose frowned at that. Dumbledore hadn't told her he would do this. She hadn't asked him to inform the Dursley's. He could have warned her. A rock fell in her stomach at the thought what he had revealed before the end of the year. The fact that he had been in her head and had taken something from her still bothered Rose a bit.

"… and that you have demanded that you wouldn't stay with us longer that a few days each summer."

Rose risked a glance in the mirror to look at Petunia's face. She was still focused on brushing Rose's hair.

"I understand why, I saw… I see what being here does to you at moments. I just wanted you to know that we never… we didn't know what she was doing. We wouldn't have let her stay alone with you if we did. You'll never have to see her again. Her visits will be limited to during the schoolyear or when you are away… I'm sor… I wanted you to know that."

Before Rose could react, Petunia briskly stood and put the brush away.

"There, the knots are out."

After that she swiftly left the room leaving Rose alone.

Rose looked at herself wide-eyed in the mirror. So, the changes weren't random. It was because of a letter from Dumbledore. Did he threaten them to make her feel welcomed?

Rose pushed that idea away quickly, the emotion she had heard in Petunia's statement just now wasn't because of a letter. Certainly, not a letter from a wizard.

Then why? Did she feel guilty? Was she trying to say sorry?

Had Rose been wrong? Did they care?

Before she could finish her line of thoughts the doorbell rang.

Uncle Vernon's voice sounded from the hall along with laughter. Uncle Vernon didn't respond quite happily. The front door closed with a bang and Rose heard paper being ripped up.

Suddenly Rose heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and uncle Vernon came into view. His face almost as red as a tomato.

"You." he snapped at Rose. "Come with me. Now."

Dread filled her stomach while following her Uncle downstairs. Something was going to get pinned on her and she was quickly scanning everything that had happened since she got back. Trying to be prepared for what was coming.

They entered the living room and Vernon almost slammed the door shut.

This wasn't good.

"So." he said, pacing between the door and the fireplace – or the electric fire that was put in place of that anyway.

"So."

A witty remark bubbled up in her throat and she had to swallow it. They were nice to her now, she didn't want to screw that up.

So she waited paitiently until uncle Vernon would tell her what was bothering him.

"We got this." said Uncle Vernon. He waved around with something that seemed purplish. "Someone wrote us a letter. About you."

Now she was really confused. Who would be writing about her to the Dursley's? And using the muggle way on top of that.

Uncle Vernon shot her Daggers with his eyes, before looking at the letter and reading it aloud:

 _Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,_

 _We have never met, but I'm the mother of Ron. One of Rose's friends._

 _I contact you because Rose might have mentioned this summer the Quidditch World Cup takes place in Britain. We acquired prime tickets through my husband's connections in the Department of Magical Games and Sports._

 _Since Rose will be staying with us this summer as you well know, we would like to take her along with us to the match. This opportunity is very rare since Britain hasn't hosted the game in over thirty year and tickets were sold out over-night._

 _However in order to take her with us, we need the written consent of her legal guardian._

 _Your response would be best sent to us in the normal way. I don't think the Muggle postman has ever delivered mail to our house._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Molly_

 _P.S. We weren't sure how many stamps were needed, I hope these were enough._

When he was finished he pulled out something else from his pocket.

"Look at this." he snarled.

In his hands he had an envelope, an envelope that was completely covered in stamps. The only space that had remained free of stamps was a square on the front of the envelope. Which contained their address.

"Well better safe than sorry." said Rose, in an attempt to keep the mood light.

"Well it was very amusing to the postman." he said with a locked jaw. "He was very curious to know the story behind the letter. He was amused by it."

That's because it was, Rose had to use all her willpower not to laugh herself. But the Dursley's hated everything that was out of the ordinary. Not only hated it but also feared it intensely.

As if the slightest thing would make them outcasts.

Vernon was staring at Rose, waiting for her reaction, she just kept her poker face up.

"So… it's okay right? I'll be staying with them anyway." She asked. In this moment, it was very convenient that they knew of her demands towards Dumbledore.

Rose wondered why Mrs. Weasley had written a letter, was it for the consent?

A twitch passed on his forehead and Rose cringed.

"Who is this woman?" he demanded.

"You've seen her at the station." said Rose. "She always comes to the station to pick Ron up at the end of the year."

Rose could see the cogwheels working, trying to remember Mrs. Weasley.

"The short and chubby woman?" he grunted after a while. "A bunch of children with red hair?" Rose had to swallow a fateful remark and just nod.

Vernon was out of his mind calling Mrs. Weasley dumpy when his own son approached the weight and stature of a small whale. Vernon didn't see the frown on her face because he look at the letter again.

"Quidditch." he muttered under his breath. "Quidditch… what is this rubbish?"

Rose knew she had to tread carefully now.

"It's a sport, played by my kind of people." Rose said carefully.

"Ha! A sport! I've never heard of it!" Uncle Vernon said a bit smugly. Rose swallowed, she was on thin ice right now.

"That's because it played in an unconventional way…" Rose added.

Vernon blanched and coughed, he escaped the subject by examining the letter again. Rose saw his lips form the words "send us your written consent… in the normal way."

"What is this woman on about? The normal way? She's the…" Vernon snapped, clearly losing his patience. Rose cut him off before he could utter the word 'freak'.

"I'll do that. It's done the same way as the acceptance letter." Rose said, choosing her words with precision.

Uncle Vernon seemed to ponder it a while, all the while cooling off from the abnormality of it all.

"You'll be going to them each summer then?" Vernon's tone became less harsh.

"I think so yes, and to Cedric's place as well." Rose answered truthfully. Her stomach fluttering at her boyfriend's name – that's right! Her boyfriend!

Uncle Vernon looked at her in confusion.

"The boy you talked to on the phone, the one that didn't shout."

Uncle Vernon's face lit up a bit. Somehow Rose thought he already liked – liked may be a big word, accept? – Cedric without meeting him and it made her smile a bit.

"Well, all right then. You can go to this World Cup thing. I'll write my consent, you take care of the rest. Tell them they have to pick you up though… I won't go to… I don't have time to drive you."

Rose knew what he had wanted to say, he absolutely feared going to a wizards house.

"I'll arrange everything." Rose said quickly.

Rose started to leave the living room and wanted to write Ron her answer.

"Hold on girl." Vernon said.

Rose cautiously turned again to face her uncle.

Same color had come back to his cheeks and he seemed very awkward.

"Did Petunia talk to you?"

Rose nodded.

"This morning in the hall… were you… did you think I was my sister?" He asked frowning.

Rose froze for a moment and her throat was almost too dry to answer.

"I… I just remembered something."

Vernon sighed and suddenly had a whole new expression on his face that made him look ten years older. This was a side she had never seen from him. Uncle Vernon rubbed his face.

"We didn't…" Uncle Vernon didn't seem to be able to get the rest of the words out.

"Aunt Petunia explained." Rose said softly.

Uncle Vernon nodded.

Rose good feel the conversation was over and she slowly backed away, fleeing to her room.

When Rose entered her room she immediately saw that Hedwig was back and her snow white feathers where puffed up, she was making clicking sounds as well, all a very clear sound she was annoyed about something.

It didn't take Rose long to see what was annoying her.

"OW!" Rose grunted when something small, fluffy and grey hit her head.

Rose rubbed the spot where she got hit while scanning the room for what hit her.

It was a small, very excited owl, which had dropped a letter at her feet.

While picking it up, she recognized the handwriting immediately.

 _Rose! We've got the tickets for the QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP!_

 _In order for you to come along we need your aunt and uncle's written permission._

 _That why Mum wrote them a letter. Maybe they already have it, I don't know how fast Muggles work. That's why I sent this head's up with Pig anyway._

Rose had to laugh at the word 'Pig' the fluffy ball zooming around the room didn't look anything like a pig. She shook her head and hoped she just couldn't read Ron's handwriting.

 _We need their written permission for when there are legalization checks from the ministry. Since mom and dad aren't your guardians._

 _Normally we're picking you up Sunday afternoon at five. Send an owl ahead with their permission will you._

 _Ron_

"Aren't you excited." Rose said chuckling when 'Pig' flew above her head. She figured the owl was very happy about delivering the letter to the correct person.

Rose sighed put the letter down, noticing Cedric's owl was sitting next to Hedwig.

She quickly took his letter and started reading.

Dear Rose,

I'm sorry but next week doesn't work for dad for you to come over. He's really busy with work, although he doesn't want to talk about it.

He told me he talked to Mr. Weasley and they'll come and get you next week. The week after that you'll stay with us.

How has your stay with you aunt and uncle been so far?

My week has been annoying, dad's having a lot of people over from the ministry and is set on introducing me to every single one. I think he's doing it to get me a job at the ministry.

I still have to tell him that I don't really want that.

I long to see you again Rose, I miss you. I can't wait until next week.

I'll come over, Ron told you he was fine with it right?

Yours,

Cedric

Rose's heart fluttered at the last part. Oh, she longed for next week as well. She took out a piece of parchment and started on her response.

Dear Cedric,

It's fine. As long as I get to see you I'll be happy.

Dumbledore sent them a letter explaining everything, they have been really nice lately. Don't know if it's because of the letter but things have been better. I don't really know how I feel about that letter though. He didn't tell me he would send one and it caught me off guard.

Have you talked with your mom about it? Maybe she can help you?

I long to see you as well. I can't wait to see you again, I might not be able to let go.

Ron is fine with it, his mom already knows as well.

Forever yours,

Rose

Rose rolled up the parchment and attached it to Cedric's owl. The owl gave her a gentle nibble before taking off. She was watching him disappear in the sky when there sounded a knock on her door.

Rose opened the door just enough to slip outside, afraid of the reaction to a second owl in her room.

"Here you go, our written consent." Vernon said.

Rose took the paper with a smile and before she could utter a thank you, Vernon was marching downstairs again.

Things would never be easy in this family, would it?

With a sigh, Rose returned inside her room, with 'Pig' still fluttering around in excitement.

"Pig, do you want to deliver another letter?"

The tiny owl twittered happily and landed on her desk, happily switching from one claw to another.

Rose quickly took out her quill and scribbled an answer on the back:

Ron,

It's all okay, the Muggles have written their consent.

See you five o'clock tomorrow.

Can't wait.

Rose

She folded this note and Vernon's consent up and tied it to a very excited owl

The moment the note was secure, the owl was off again, it zoomed out of the window and out of sight.


	2. Chapter 2: Back to the Burrow

Chapter two:

BACK TO THE BURROW

When twelve o'clock neared the next day, Rose's room was almost completely empty. Only the furniture remained.

Everything Rose owned had been put neatly away in her trunk, which stood neatly in the corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon had almost turned white when Rose told him the Weasleys would be arriving the next day at five.

"I hope they have the decency to show up in normal clothes." He snapped. "I don't want the whole neighborhood to see… I've seen the kind of clothes your people usually wear, I don't want unnecessary attention."

Rose immediately felt a pit in her stomach. She had never seen the Weasleys in muggle clothes and she had a feeling even if they tried they wouldn't really succeed.

They don't have enough contact with muggles to understand their 'fashion'.

She really didn't care a damn about the neighbors but she was scared how Uncle Vernon would treat the Weasleys if they were in their normal attire.

Of course Vernon had put on his best suit, wanting to look intimidating. And Petunia her best dress to look proper.

Dudley however looked smaller if it was possible. He seemed to wish himself invisible and was constantly searching for a spot where he would attract the least attention. Which wasn't surprising since his last encounter with a wizard had gone terribly wrong.

While eating lunch Rose felt the pit in her stomach grow bigger. Everyone was silent, even Dudley when he got his meagre meal.

Aunt Petunia didn't even eat at all, she just sat there with very thin lips and a dark look.

"They'll be driving, of course?" Uncle Vernon suddenly asked, Rose jumped from the sudden noise.

"Euhm." said Rose.

Rose felt like throwing up, she hadn't even tough of that. They didn't have a car anymore since year two. She knew they were going to use magic. Don't let it be brooms, please, don't let it be brooms.

"I don't know." Rose confessed.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I haven't really seen a lot of transport they use, only the train." Rose wisely didn't speak about apparating, brooms and fireplace travel.

She quickly fleed to her room after that, Uncle Vernon was looking murderous after that revelation. Rose put on a set of new clothes that Petunia had bought for her this summer. She wasn't used to having so much choice, but she finally settled on a blue-green blouse.

The blouse was sleeveless and very loose. It was one of her favorites because the neckline dipped down a bit and the cut showed off her new acquired curves. If they qualify as curves at least, everything had softened a bit at least, except her face, her roundish cheeks had lessened, of course this could be because of the diet.

Rose put on a pair of white ripped shorts to match with the blouse.

She pulled her hair up in a high ponytail, she really needed a haircut, her hair almost reached her hips now. Rose looked into the mirror and was happy with her look, wondering if Cedric would be too her stomach fluttered happily and a blush appeared.

Finally, at a quarter to five, Rose went back downstairs and into the living room. Aunt Petunia was compulsively straightening cushions. Uncle Vernon was pretending to read the paper, but his tiny eyes were not moving, and Rose was sure he was really listening with all his might for the sound of an approaching car. Dudley was crammed into an armchair, his porky hands beneath him, clamped firmly around his bottom.

Rose couldn't take the tension, she left the room and went and sat on the stairs in the hall, her eyes on her watch and her heart pumping fast from excitement and nerves.

But five o'clock came and then went. Uncle Vernon, perspiring slightly in his suit, opened the front door, peered up and down the street, then withdrew his head quickly.

"They're late!" he snarled at Rose.

"I know." said Rose. "Maybe… er… the traffic's bad, or something."

Ten past five... then a quarter past five... Rose was starting to feel anxious herself now. At half past, she heard Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia conversing in terse mutters in the living room.

"No consideration at all."

"We might've had an engagement."

"Maybe they think they'll get invited to dinner if they're late."

"Well, they most certainly won't be." said Uncle Vernon, and Rose heard him stand up and start pacing the living room. "They'll take Rose and go, there'll be no hanging around. That's if they're coming at all. Probably mistaken the day. I daresay their kind don't set much store by punctuality. Either that or they drive some tin-pot car that's broken d… AAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

Rose jumped up.

From the other side of the living room door came the sounds of the three Dursleys scrambling, panic-stricken, across the room. Next moment Dudley came flying into the hall, looking terrified.

"What happened?" said Rose. "What's the matter?"

But Dudley didn't seem able to speak. Hands still clamped over his buttocks, he waddled as fast as he could into the kitchen.

Rose hurried into the living room. Loud hangings and scrapings were coming from behind the Dursleys' boarded-up fireplace, which had a fake coal fire plugged in front of it.

"What is it?" gasped Aunt Petunia, who had backed into the wall and was staring, terrified, toward the fire. "What is it, Vernon?"

But they were left in doubt barely a second longer. Voices could be heard from inside the blocked fireplace.

"Ouch! Fred, no… go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake… tell George not to… OUCH! George, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell Ron…"

"Maybe Rose can hear us, Dad… maybe she'll be able to let us out…" There was a loud hammering of fists on the boards behind the electric fire.

"Rose? Rose, can you hear us?" The Dursleys rounded on Rose like a pair of angry wolverines.

"What is this?" growled Uncle Vernon. "What's going on?"

"They… they've tried to get here by Floo powder…" said Rose, fighting a mad desire to laugh. "They can travel by fire… only you've blocked the fireplace… hang on…"

She approached the fireplace and called through the boards.

"Mr. Weasley? Can you hear me?" The hammering stopped. Somebody inside the chimney piece said, "Shh!".

"Mr. Weasley, it's Rose… the fireplace has been blocked up. You won't be able to get through there."

"Damn!" said Mr. Weasley's voice. "What on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"

"They've got an electric fire." Rose explained.

"Really?" said Mr. Weasley's voice excitedly. "Eclectic, you say? With a plug? Gracious, I must see that... Let's think… ouch, Ron!" Ron's voice now joined the others'.

"What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"

"Oh no, Ron." came Fred's voice, very sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."

"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here." said George, whose voice sounded muffled, as though he was squashed against the wall.

"Boys, boys…" said Mr. Weasley vaguely. "I'm trying to think what to do… Yes… only way… Stand back, Rose."

Rose retreated to the sofa.

Uncle Vernon, however, moved forward.

"Wait a moment!" he bellowed at the fire. "What exactly are you going to…" BANG.

The electric fire shot across the room as the boarded-up fireplace burst outward, expelling Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron in a cloud of rubble and loose chippings.

Aunt Petunia shrieked and fell backward over the coffee table, Uncle Vernon caught her before she hit the floor and gaped, speechless, at the Weasleys, all of whom had bright red hair like Rose, including Fred and George, who were identical to the last freckle.

"That's better." panted Mr. Weasley, brushing dust from his long green robes and straightening his glasses.

"Ah… you must be Rose's aunt and uncle!" Tall, thin, and balding, he moved toward Uncle Vernon, his hand outstretched, but Uncle Vernon backed away several paces, dragging Aunt Petunia. Words utterly failed Uncle Vernon. His best suit was covered in white dust, which had settled in his hair and mustache and made him look as though he had just aged thirty years. Rose shot a nervous glance between her uncle and Mr. Weasley. Thank god, she was leaving today, she didn't want to hear the aftermath of this occurrence.

Mr. Weasley seemed to notice the death stare.

"Er… yes… sorry about that." said Mr. Weasley, lowering his hand and looking over his shoulder at the blasted fireplace. "It's all my fault. It just didn't occur to me that we wouldn't be able to get out at the other end. I had your fireplace connected to the Floo Network, you see… just for an afternoon, you know, so we could get Rose. Muggle fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected, strictly speaking… but I've got a useful contact at the Floo Regulation Panel and he fixed it for me. I can put it right in a jiffy, though, don't worry. I'll light a fire to send the boys back, and then I can repair your fireplace before I Disapparate."

Rose was ready to bet that the Dursleys hadn't understood a single word of this. They were still gaping at Mr. Weasley, thunderstruck. Aunt Petunia staggered upright again and hid behind Uncle Vernon.

"Don't worry, he'll put everything back how it was, like this never happened." Rose explained calmly.

The Dursleys looked at her with wide eyes. Yep, definitively happy to be leaving after this.

"Hello, Rose!" said Mr. Weasley brightly. "Got your trunk ready?"

"It's upstairs." said Rose, grinning back.

"We'll get it." said Fred at once. Fred and George had been busy dusting themselves off and examining the home of the Dursley's. Their eyes suddenly focused on Rose and Fred winked at Rose. George seemed to be frozen in place. He had the strangest look in his eyes, one that Rose could quite pin down.

Fred nudged George and he seemed to jolt awake, throwing a goofy smile at her.

They left the room. They knew where Rose's bedroom was, having come to pick her up once in the dead of night, in a flying car.

Rose suspected that Fred and George were hoping for a glimpse of Dudley, they had heard a lot about him from Rose.

"Well…" said Mr. Weasley, swinging his arms slightly, while he tried to find words to break the very nasty silence. "Very… erm… very nice place you've got here."

As the usually spotless living room was now covered in dust and bits of brick, this remark didn't go down too well with the Dursleys. Rose cringed and Uncle Vernon's face purpled once more, and Aunt Petunia started chewing her tongue again.

However, they seemed too scared to actually say anything.

Mr. Weasley was looking around. He loved everything to do with Muggles. Rose could see him itching to go and examine the television and the video recorder.

"They run off eckeltricity, do they?" he said knowledgeably. "Ah yes, I can see the plugs. I collect plugs." he added to Uncle Vernon. "And batteries. Got a very large collection of batteries. My wife thinks I'm mad, but there you are." Uncle Vernon clearly thought Mr. Weasley was mad too.

He moved ever so slightly to the right, screening Aunt Petunia from view, as though he thought Mr. Weasley might suddenly run at them and attack.

Dudley suddenly reappeared in the room.

Rose could hear the clunk of her trunk on the stairs, and knew that the sounds had scared Dudley out of the kitchen. Dudley edged along the wall, gazing at Mr. Weasley with terrified eyes and attempted to conceal himself behind his mother and father. Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon's bulk, while sufficient to hide bony Aunt Petunia, was nowhere near enough to conceal Dudley.

"Ah, this is your cousin, is it, Rose?" said Mr. Weasley, taking another brave stab at making conversation.

"Yep." said Rose. "That's Dudley." She and Ron exchanged glances and then quickly looked away from each other, the temptation to burst out laughing was almost overwhelming. Dudley was still clutching his bottom as though afraid it might fall off. Mr. Weasley, however, seemed genuinely concerned at Dudley's peculiar behavior.

Indeed, from the tone of his voice when he next spoke, Rose was quite sure that Mr. Weasley thought Dudley was quite as mad as the Dursleys thought he was, except that Mr. Weasley felt sympathy rather than fear.

"Having a good holiday, Dudley?" he said kindly. Dudley whimpered. Rose saw his hands tighten still harder over his massive backside.

Fred and George came back into the room carrying Rose's school trunk. They glanced around as they entered and spotted Dudley. Their faces cracked into identical evil grins. Oh oh.

"Ah, right." said Mr. Weasley. "Better get cracking then."

He pushed up the sleeves of his robes and took out his wand. Rose saw the Dursleys draw back against the wall as one.

"Incendio!" said Mr. Weasley, pointing his wand at the hole in the wall behind him. Flames rose at once in the fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. Mr. Weasley took a small drawstring bag from his pocket, untied it, took a pinch of the powder inside, and threw it onto the flames, which turned emerald green and roared higher than ever.

"Off you go then, Fred." said Mr. Weasley. "Coming." said Fred. "Oh no… hang on…" A bag of sweets had spilled out of Fred's pocket and the contents were now rolling in every direction… big, fat toffees in brightly colored wrappers. Fred scrambled around, cramming them back into his pocket, then gave the Dursleys a cheery wave, stepped forward, and walked right into the fire, saying "the Burrow!" Aunt Petunia gave a little shuddering gasp. Rose examined her aunt more closely and to her surprise fear had turned into wonder and intrigue somewhere along the line. It made Rose smile.

There was a whooshing sound and Fred vanished.

"Right then, George." said Mr. Weasley. "You and the trunk." Rose helped George carry the trunk forward into the flames and turn it onto its end so that he could hold it better. George seemed very tense while doing this.

Then, with a second whoosh, George had cried "the Burrow!" and vanished too.

"Ron, you next." said Mr. Weasley.

"See you." said Ron brightly to the Dursleys. He grinned broadly at Rose, then stepped into the fire, shouted "the Burrow!" and disappeared.

Now Rose and Mr. Weasley alone remained.

"Well... 'bye then." Rose said to the Dursleys. They didn't say anything at all. Rose moved toward the fire, but just as she reached the edge of the hearth, Mr. Weasley put out a hand and held her back. He was looking at the Dursleys in amazement.

"Rose said good-bye to you." he said. "Didn't you hear her?"

"It's okay Mr. Weasley, I think they're a bit overwhelmed." Rose muttered to Mr. Weasley.

Mr. Weasley did not remove his hand from Rose's shoulder.

"You aren't going to see your niece till next summer." he said to Uncle Vernon in mild indignation. "Surely you're going to say good-bye?"

Uncle Vernon's face worked furiously. The idea of being taught consideration by a man who had just blasted away half his living room wall seemed to be causing him intense suffering. But Mr. Weasley's wand was still in his hand and Uncle Vernon's tiny eyes darted to it once, before he said, very resentfully.

"Good-bye, then."

"See you." said Rose, putting one foot forward into the green flames, which felt pleasantly like warm breath. At that moment, however, a horrible gagging sound erupted behind her and Aunt Petunia started to scream. Rose wheeled around.

Dudley was no longer standing behind his parents. He was kneeling beside the coffee table and he was gagging and sputtering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was protruding from his mouth. One bewildered second later, Rose realized that the foot-long thing was Dudley's tongue… and that a brightly colored toffee wrapper lay on the floor before him. The twins…

Aunt Petunia hurled herself onto the ground beside Dudley, seized the end of his swollen tongue and attempted to wrench it out of his mouth, unsurprisingly, Dudley yelled and sputtered worse than ever, trying to fight her off.

Uncle Vernon was bellowing and waving his arms around and Mr. Weasley had to shout to make himself heard.

"Not to worry, I can sort him out!" he yelled, advancing on Dudley with his wand outstretched, but Aunt Petunia screamed worse than ever and threw herself on top of Dudley, shielding him from Mr. Weasley.

"No, really!" said Mr. Weasley desperately. "It's a simple process… it was the toffee… my son Fred… real practical joker… but it's only an Engorgement Charm… at least, I think it is… please, I can correct it…"

But far from being reassured, the Dursleys became more panicstricken, Aunt Petunia was sobbing hysterically, tugging Dudley's tongue as though determined to rip it out, Dudley appeared to be suffocating under the combined pressure of his mother and his tongue, and Uncle Vernon, who had lost control completely, seized a china figure from on top of the sideboard and threw it very hard at Mr. Weasley, who ducked, causing the ornament to shatter in the blasted fireplace.

"Now really!" said Mr. Weasley angrily, brandishing his wand. "I'm trying to help!"

Bellowing like a wounded hippo, Uncle Vernon snatched up another ornament.

"Rose, go! Just go!" Mr. Weasley shouted, his wand on Uncle Vernon. "I'll sort this out!"

But Rose was frozen on the spot.

Uncle Vernon was bellowing loudly and Rose wasn't aware of her surroundings anymore.

"You'll pay for that, little bitch!" It echoed through her head, loud and clear.

A rough and violent shiver shook her core and she tasted bile in her mouth.

She wanted to scream but her voice was quiet, she wanted to run but her feet wouldn't move.

Marge was booming over her, the belt in hand, an evil grin on her face.

Ready to use it. Ready to rip her back open.

"Rose!"

Rose felt really small, she needed to hide, she needed to run, she needed to do something but she was eyeing Marge with an intense, paralyzing fear.

"Rose!"

Suddenly Rose snapped out of it. Final shivers running through her spine.

Mr. Weasley was looking at her with big, worried eyes. While still dodging everything Vernon threw at him. Petunia was still screaming, Dudleys was still crying.

Suddenly, anger overcame Rose. She was furious, furious that the Dursley's wouldn't listen, furious that Fred had left that candy, furious that Dudley just had to eat it and white, hot, rage that she had to go through another memory like that again.

"Enough!" She bellowed and her demand boomed through the house. Rose had put some extra push to her voice. Her non-wand magic powering it.

Suddenly the three Dursley's froze in place. They had never seen her this way. Powerful, utterly magic.

"Calm down! This is easily fixed if you wouldn't panic this quickly. Aunt Petunia, can you please move out of the way before Dudley suffocates, because that, we can't fix."

Petunia flinched when Rose addressed her and let go of the now four feet long tongue.

Mr. Weasley saw his chance and quickly shrank it again with a flick of his wand.

Dudley gasped gratefully for air. Petunia let out a yelp and pulled him close quickly.

"There, was that so hard?"

Petunia and Vernon looked at her, wide-eyed. And Rose saw a look that she hadn't seen in a long time, a look that she had hoped never to see again.

They looked at her like she was a freak.

Her shoulders dropped and her stomach turned to ice.

Rose's look turned cold.

"If you excuse me, I have some twins to kill."

She stepped into the fire, as she said "the Burrow!" The next moment Rose had begun to spin very fast, and the Dursleys' living room was whipped out of sight in a rush of emerald-green flames.

The twins are in for it now ;)

As always, let me know what you think, I love reading your opinions!

XXX D.


	3. Chapter 3: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Chapter three

WEASLEYS' WIZARD WHEEZES

Rose tried to embrace the stomach-churning feeling of getting catapulted through about a hundred fireplaces but she'll never really get used to it. She had to close her eyes to calm her stomach down.

At last she felt herself slow down and reopened her eyes to catch the correct fireplace.

Stepping forward to exit at the burrow, Rose immediately felt she would stick the landing and the floor came closer at a rapid pace.

Rose braced for impact but strong arms caught her before she could hit the ground.

It was George.

"Did he eat it?" Fred asked with a wide grin on his face.

Her eyes flashed and she looked at them with a hard ice cold look, snatching herself free from George's arms.

The smiles that had been plastered on the twins and their brother Ron, suddenly vanished.

"What were you thinking!" Rose reeled.

The three brothers took a step back in surprise.

"Oh, Rose doesn't have it hard enough with her magic fearing relatives, let's make it a bit harder by traumatizing them!" She spat the words out venomously. "Yeah, great idea, that way the two weeks she has to go home will be unbearable. Making them look at her like a freak! Was that your plan? Congratulations! You succeeded, all the progress I made with them, has vanished with your little stunt!"

The brothers took another step back cautiously. Rose felt her magic brimming at the edge of her restraint, happily waiting to burst out. She fought to hold it back.

"You don't have to go back…" Ron muttered.

She whirled around and gave him a hard stare, fire in her eyes.

"So, that's it then? You didn't agree with me to go back and gave those two knuckleheads an idea so that my life would be miserable? That was your brilliant plan?"

Ron flinched and shrank. The look on his face told Rose enough. Yes, yes, that had been his plan.

"Hey! We're not knuckleheads…" Fred said faintly.

"No? You guys know I'm always in for a practical joke. But seriously? You also know how hard it is with the Dursley's, did you even think about the consequences for me?"

Fred suddenly couldn't look her in the eyes anymore.

"No, I guess not." Rose said, the angry energy slowly leaving her. It made place for another feeling. Disappointment, she thought they knew how delicate the situation at her home was, even without knowing about… Marge.

George just stood there, gawking at her in amazement. What? Did he think she would have been happy about this?

"You have anything to say in you defense?" Rose eyed George. He straightened his face and looked her straight in her eyes.

"No, it was stupid, we didn't think and we shouldn't have done it."

Rose nodded, the last of her anger disappearing.

"We're sorry." George added and Rose nodded again. The room was very silent, the three brothers looked like had lost their puppy or something. Rose revisited her tantrum and a knot of guilt began to form in her stomach. They didn't live with them, how could they really understand the situation. They just wanted to teach Dudley a lesson for treating her horribly. Rose sighed.

"I'm sorry for yelling."

"You were in your right to do so." George answered flatly.

Rose felt a little smile tug the corner of her mouth looking at the three defeated boy's.

"What was it anyway?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee." said Fred. "We came up with the idea for it a while ago, so we started making them, we just needed someone to test them on…". Enthusiasm filled his voice while talking about it, but fell away with the last words. He turned his gaze to a corner of the room.

Suddenly someone chuckled and Rose saw that there were two red-haired people sitting at the scrubbed wooden table, that she had never seen before. But she quickly realized who they should be. The two already graduated Weasley brothers, Charlie and Bill.

"It's a miracle! No one has been able to shut up those two so effectively before." Said the furthest.

The tiny kitchen exploded with laughter.

"How's it going Rose?" One of them stood up and approached her, holding out a hand to shake. When she took it she could feel calluses and blisters across his hand.

When her eyes flashed down she saw several burns riddling the skin on his arms and assumed this was Charlie. The brother who's working with dragons in Romania.

She could see a lot of the twins in him, only his face was broader. The typic twin smile was very recognizable though. He had a lot more muscled than the twins though, which wasn't surprising, working with dragons and all.

Charlie's eyes only flittered to her scar for a second but immediately focused back her eyes.

The other elder Weasley brother got up as well and took Rose's hand as well.

Bill looked her over completely and a wide grin spread across his face after his eyes flittered over to George for a second.

Rose was a bit taken aback by Bill. She knew he worked at Gringotts, the wizarding bank and she had half expected an older version of Percy. Strict, very conservative and a tickler for the rules.

Bill was the complete opposite however. He was tall, broad, had long hair that was in a pony tale and a fang pierced his ear.

He didn't look like someone that worked at a bank but more like someone that worked at rock concerts or clubs.

"You really do look like you could be a Weasley." Bill said with a low gritty voice, smile still plastered on his face.

Rose smiled back widely.

"I feel like one half the time." Rose chuckled, as did the rest in the kitchen.

"Although, I must say you have better looks than the rest of us, no wonder…" But before Bill could finish his sentence they were interrupted by a popping sound.

Mr. Weasley appeared in the kitchen, his face constricted in anger. A look she had never seen before from Mr. Weasley.

"What. Where. You. Thinking!" Mr. Weasley almost spat out the words. A flaming look pointed at the twins.

"We shouldn't have done it, we know." Fred shrugged.

That took Mr. Weasley back for a minute but then he continued lecturing.

"I have been campaigning my whole life against that sort of stunts! I've been working towards respect for the muggles and then my own sons pull a stunt like that! It disgusts me."

"Dad, it wasn't because he's a muggle." Fred said angrily. "If he had been a wizard we would have done the same thing, with how he had been treating Rose."

"Doing it for Rose is a very lame excuse! She has told us on multiple occasions how difficult her relation to them is because of their fear for magic, you didn't do her any favors!"

"We know dad… We're sorry…" George said.

Mr. Weasley raised his eyebrows. He was totally flabbergasted by the defeated looks on his sons faces. They had never accepted a lecture from him this easily.

"What's wrong?"

Bill laughed.

"Dad, Rose already gave the three of them a trashing they won't soon forget."

Mr. Weasley looked at her with surprise.

"Wait, three?"

Ron instantly reddened like a tomato.

"Ron gave them the idea." Bill said.

Ron shot Charlie a glare.

"You should have seen Rose, dad. We've never seen them shut up that quickly before." Charlie laughed.

Rose's cheeks flushed.

"And right she is! You better hope your mother doesn't hear about this!"

"Hear about what?" said a voice behind them.

Mrs. Weasley walked into the kitchen, her eyes immediately suspicious, scanning the room.

When her eyes fell on Rose, she smiled.

"Hello, my dear." Her eyes quickly returned to her sons and husband.

"Hear about what, Arthur?"

Mr. Weasley was at a loss for words. Rose knew he had never intended to tell his wife, wanting to keep the peace.

Silence filled the kitchen and everyone's eyes were nervously flitting between Mrs. And Mr. Weasley.

At that moment two girls entered the kitchen. Hermione and Ginny.

"Rose!" Ginny exclaimed and she ran to her, throwing her arms around her in a hug. Rose laughed out loud. Hermione chuckled and threw her a wide grin. Ginny had been looking up to Rose since her very first visit to the burrow.

"Hear about what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked again, not letting herself be distracted by Ginny's enthusiastic outburst.

"I already gave Fred and George a lecture, Rose did so as well…"

Mrs. Weasley looked at Rose for a second and then focused back on her husband.

"What did they do? If it has anything to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes…" Mrs. Weasley voice began to sound dangerous and Rose knew her lecture would be nothing compared to Mrs. Weasley. She started to feel a bit sorry for the twins.

"Euhm, maybe we should show you where you're sleeping." Hermione said.

"She knows, she slept in my room last..." Ginny said.

"We all go and show her." Hermione said while signaling with her eyes it was time to leave.

"Great idea, Hermione." Rose said happily and they turned to leave the kitchen. Ron stood to follow.

"Yeah, great idea, Hermione." George said nudging Fred to follow as well.

"Oh, no no. You two stay where you are!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

They were almost at the door when Mr. Weasley spoke up.

"Ronald! You get to stay as well."

Ron cursed under his breath and faced an now even more furious looking Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny, Hermione and Rose quickly escaped, while Hermione made a disapproving sound. Clearly not happy that Ron was involved as well.

"What happened?" Ginny asked while they started climbing the steps.

Rose quickly explained and Hermione scoffed.

"Unbelievable, those idiots!" She exclaimed after Rose was finished.

"What was your mom talking about Ginny? With the Weasley's wizard thing…" Rose asked.

Ginny gave a chuckle, Hermione didn't.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Mum was cleaning their room a week ago and found piles of price lists with joking products. All stuff they had put together, it's pretty impressive. We always heard the weirdest noises from their room but we all just figured they liked loud noises. But some of the stuff is a bit… well dangerous because it hasn't been properly tested. The pricelists were for Hogwarts, they were planning on selling the stuff there. Mum just lost it. They didn't get a lot of O.W.L.s and she went ballistic. When she told them that they wouldn't get into the ministry if they didn't get better grades, they just told her they didn't want that. They just want to open a joke shop, I think we all went partially deaf with the outburst mum had after that."

Suddenly a door opened on the landing and Percy stuck his head out.

"Hi Percy." Rose said.

"Hello Rose, I was wondering who was making all the noise… I'm trying to concentrate on my report for the ministry…" Percy said, pride and irritation seeping through his words.

"Sorry, Percy." Rose muttered.

"Just… keep it down?" Percy said.

Rose grinned at him.

"I will… but I'm not sure I'll do you much good."

Percy's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Your mom is about to… well…"

Percy groaned.

"What did those idiots do now!" He slammed the door shut. Rude.

Percy had always been… tricky to interact with but this caught Rose by surprise.

"He's been like that since he's working for the ministry." Ginny said hatefully.

When Ginny's room came into view, shouts finally started erupting from the kitchen. They quickly entered her room and the familiar pink walls greeted Rose.

There were three beds in the room for the three girls and the three of them installed themselves on Ginny's.

"So, Percy has taken a liking to the working life?" Rose asked.

Ginny sighed.

"He won't shut up about it. Do us all a favor and don't ask him anything about it. He'll talk your ears off for a half hour straight. Dad has to drag him home each night, or he'd be sleeping there."

Rose chuckled.

"How were your two weeks with the Dursley's, Rose?" said Hermione.

"Fine, I reckon next year won't this good." Rose answered a bit strained, trying not to think too hard about it.

"How's Ron involved in all of this?" Hermione asked.

"He gave them the idea." Rose said.

"What! Why?" Hermione gasped.

"Ronald logic, I figure. It doesn't surprise me." Ginny said.

Hermione and Rose looked at Ginny.

"He's been complaining non-stop since he's been back. Constantly whining about how ridiculous it is that you're returning to your aunt and uncle each year. Mom's been telling him that they're still you family, that it's normal for you to want to go home, even if they're… conservative about magic. I don't get it though, why so obsessed about it now? He's never complained about it before." Ginny looked at Rose curiously. Rose shrugged in response.

"I've been playing with the idea that he may be falling for you."

Rose burst out laughing and Hermione sputtered, almost choking in surprise.

"Or not." Ginny said, seeing their reaction. "One Weasley is enough anyway…" She muttered under her breath.

"Sorry, what?" Rose asked.

"Nothing. But if it's not that, what then?" Ginny quickly pressed on.

Hermione and Rose glanced at each other.

"Probably because I'll be coming over after 2 weeks each year from now on." Rose said.

Ginny gave a happy yelp.

"Really, why?"

"They can't keep me the whole summer anymore…" Rose tried to evade the subject.

"But why give the twins such a ridiculous idea then?" Hermione quickly added, before Ginny could ask more questions.

Ginny shrugged.

"I think he figures if your life was a living hell over there you'd never want to go back…"

"What an idiot!"

"Precisely."

Silence filled the room.

Hermione tilted her head.

"I think the shouting has stopped. Should we go down and help your mom with dinner?"

"Good idea." Ginny said.

They left Ginny's room and went to the kitchen. They found Mrs. Weasley alone in the kitchen, still mad and mumbling to herself.

When she saw the girls, she gave them a faint smile.

"We're eating outside, there's simply not enough room for all of us inside. Could you girls take the plates outside and the forks and knives?"

Hermione and Ginny took those and Rose stayed behind.

Mrs. Weasley waved her wand a bit more powerful at the potato's than intended and they shot out of their skin so fast they were bouncing around the room in a second.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. She flicked her wand again and a dustpan began cleaning them up.

"Those boy's!" She suddenly burst out. Grabbing the pots and pans in short powerful moments.

"I don't know what's gotten into them! No ambition at all! Always making trouble." Mrs. Weasley put one of the pots on the fire with such force a loud bang sounded through the kitchen.

"And it's not like they're stupid but they're wasting their brains on causing trouble, if they don't change they'll be charged for improper use of magic. I don't know what I did wrong… NOT AGAIN!"

She shouted when she had tried to grab her wand again but it had made a farting sound and changed into a rubber chicken. Rose had to suppress a snigger.

"How many times have I told them not to leave them lying around! They never listen!" Mrs. Weasley continued.

Mrs. Weasley suddenly stilled and had to search support on the counter.

"What will become of them…" She muttered silently.

"Mrs. Weasley…?"

Mrs. Weasley jumped and Rose realized she hadn't even noticed Rose had stayed behind.

"You heard all that did you?"

Rose just nodded.

"Listen, I don't agree with what they did, I'm pretty furious myself about it but…" Rose hesitated, it wasn't really her place, she wasn't the mom. "I agree they act like fools sometimes but they always manage to make others around them smile." Rose stilled again, Mrs. Weasley seemed interested in had she had to say so she continued on.

"I mean, I've… my life… I mean we all know I've hadn't had to most 'normal' life. Each year it's like something has to get me off guard and smack me in the face. But whenever that happened they were always the first ones to make me laugh again. Appreciate the smaller things. I've only known them three year but I think it's pretty damn amazing how they seem to be able to lighten a mood. And I know starting a joke shop seems like... well a joke. But I have no doubt they'll turn it into something amazing."

Mrs. Weasley smiled a bit.

"It's too soon dear. They need all their options open, they could do so many things."

"I'm not a mom. And I've never… I didn't grow up with one so it's not really my place. But I just wanted to share what I thought." Honestly Rose couldn't see them doing anything else than bring joy and laughter to the world but she wasn't going to say that now.

"Thank you dear." Mrs. Weasley seemed to 'man' up again and continued her cooking.

"You should go outside with the rest."

Rose left the kitchen and bumped up to a fleshy wall.

It was George… again. Fred was standing right behind him.

They were looking at her with awe.

"Did you mean all that?" George said, his voice sounded raspy.

"Heard that did you?"

They nodded.

"I'm still pissed at you two." Rose said pointing a finger at them but a little smile played around her lips. "But yeah, I meant every word."

They suddenly scooped her up in a bear hug and Rose had to giggle.

"Thank you for saying that to mom."

They put her down again.

"I have no doubt that if you guy's pull it off, you'll take over the Wizarding world by storm." Rose said. She winked at them and stepped outside, leaving the twins gaping behind her.

"She's pretty amazing."

"Yup."

Rose entered the garden and immediately saw Crookshanks chasing after a gnome. It quickly hid in one of the boots scattered around at the door. Giggles sounded out of the boot at Crookshanks stuck a paw inside to try and catch it.

Rose jumped at a very loud crashing sound coming from the other side of the house.

She turned the corner and saw Charlie and Bill pointing their wands upward towards two flying tables. They were chasing each other, trying to knock the other table out of the air.

Fred and George quickly joined her and start cheering. Ginny was laughing, Hermione seemed torn between being worried and laughing. Ron sat in a corner of the garden, his ear red and his eyes fixed on something in the garden. He still seemed very displeased with what had happened today.

Suddenly Percy's window flew open.

"Will you keep it down?!" He shouted.

"Sorry Perce, how's the report going?" Bill asked sweetly.

"At this pace very slowly!" Percy snapped and he closed his window with a bang.

Bill and Charly shrugged and lowered the tables. After a quick reparo both tables were repaired and they started setting the table.

In no time everyone sat down and the tables were overflowing with food. Rose's stomach made a lot of noise at the sight of it, after being on a diet for two weeks, and Mrs. Weasley made sure her plate was extra full.

To focused on Eating Rose didn't say much but listened in on the other conversations.

Percy and Mr. Weasley were discussing his report.

Percy was bragging how he'd have his report done sooner than was expected of him to made a good impression of himself.

"It'll help Mr. Crouch immensely, since our department is overflowing with work. The department of magical games and sport just isn't helping us enough. Ludo Bagman…"

"I like Ludo." Mr. Weasley interrupted. "He's the one that made sure we have such good tickets."

"Bagman is nice enough, he's just not a leader. Just look at Mr. Crouch! I would see him lose a member of his department and do nothing about it. Bertha Jorkins has been missing for a month now."

"Yes, we talked about that. He told me she had disappeared multiple times before, but I agree he should be looking for her anyway."

"Mr. Crouch seems very disapproving of Mr. Bagman in the matter but we simply don't have the time to search for members of other departments for them. You know with that big event coming up…" That last part Percy said considerably louder and looked around, as if he was expecting people to ask him about it.

"You know which one father… the top secret one."

Ginny rolled her eyes and whispered to Rose.

"He's been trying to get us to ask about it the last two week. Nobody wants to out of fear he'll start lecturing us about his report."

Further down the table Mrs. Weasley showing her disapproval of Bill's earing, which was apparently recently added to his look.

"Really Bill, aren't you afraid what the people at the bank will say?"

"Nobody gives a sh… cares. As long as I keep bringing in treasure, they're happy and they don't care how I look."

"And your hair is getting way too long, dear. I wish you would let me cut it."

"I like it." Ginny suddenly said. "It looks cool, besides Dumbledore's hair is way longer."

Next to Mrs. Weasly, Fred, George and Charlie were discussing the world cup.

Rose was happily switching between conversations, until her eyes fell on Ron, who was still avoiding her gaze. Rose sighed caught his attention.

"What's up with you?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right…"

Ron bit his lip and his ear turned red.

"Spit it out, djeez."

"You're still staying with us right, next summer I mean?"

Rose eyebrows rose to her hairline in surprise.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Becauseyouseemedpissed." Ron muttered in.

Rose had to laugh.

"Oh Ron. What you did was pretty stupid but did you seriously think I wouldn't be friends anymore?"

Ron's face turned the same color as his ears now.

"You're my best friend silly."

Ron smiled lightly but before he could add something, Mrs. Weasley let out a surprised yelp.

"Have you seen the time! Hup, all of you in bed…"

* * *

AO3 Readers might have noticed I've made additional changes .

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I love communicating with you guy's ^^.

XXX D.


	4. Chapter 4: Summer

Chapter 4

Summer

Rose woke slowly to her new surroundings.

Pink overruled her vision and she had to smile. Ginny's room was small but had a nice view of the orchard where the Weasley's always play Quidditch in the summer.

There were a few posters on the wall of the Holyhead Harpies with one of the of Gwenog Jones their beater. But there were no way near as many poster as Ron had in his room.

Rose glanced around the room and saw that Hermione and Ginny where still a sleep. She turned over to try and get some more sleep but to no avail.

Giving up with a sigh she got up silently and went down the stairs.

Rose entered the kitchen to set herself a cup of tea but realized everything worked on magic and she couldn't do under aged magic yet.

Rose was about to scan the room and use her natural magic when the stove suddenly flickered on.

"Good morning honey, you're up early." Mrs. Weasley said surprised, she was followed by Mr. Weasley.

"It's a habit."

Something like anger flashed briefly across Mrs. Weasley's face. Rose knew it wasn't towards her.

Rose always saw a look of disapproval and anger on Mrs. Weasley's face when the upbringing of the Dursley's shone through.

"Did you want something, sweetie? Breakfast won't be for a few hours, the rest sleeps in. But I can prepare yours along with Arthur's."

"No, that's okay. I just wanted something to drink."

"What would you like to…"

"I think hot chocolate milk would be good." Mr. Weasley interrupted Mrs. Weasley. He said it while looking at Rose with piercing eyes. Remembering what happened yesterday, Rose realized that Mr. Weasley did see her panic attack. Great.

"Rose, could I have a moment?" Mr. Weasley continued.

Rose cringed internally, she had hoped that Mr. Weasley wouldn't act on it.

"Sure."

Mr. Weasley went outside.

The sun was rising to a clear sky, Rose could tell it would be a beautiful day.

When they had put enough distance between them and the house Mr. Weasley turned towards her with a concerned look on his face. He hesitated a moment.

"It's not my intention to put you on the spot, Rose. But I saw something yesterday and I'm concerned about you."

Rose could see the concern on his face, it was not a distant concern, like you saw with teachers or Dumbledore. It was not the concern you would show to a close friend, like Ron and Hermione. It wasn't even the concern you show a relative like she saw with Lupin.

No, the look on Mr. Weasley's face took Rose completely by surprise, she felt her heart swell at it and her throat tighten.

Mr. Weasley was looking at her like a father that is worried about his daughter. It was so unexpected and did so much more to Rose than the talk would do.

"Yesterday, when your uncle got angry and started shouting, it looked like… It looked like, you were having a panic attack. You completely froze, the fear in your eyes…" Mr. Weasley's voice trailed away. He seemed to need a moment to put his emotions in check before continuing.

"Are you treated well by your relatives? Do they hurt you?"

That question also took Rose by surprise. They didn't know?  
"Professor Dumbledore didn't inform you?"

"Inform me about what?"

Rose sighed and started recounting the tale of what they uncovered last year.

Mr. Weasley stayed very quiet, although she could see he was restraining himself as good as possible. His posture became very stiff and his jaws were clenched.

"The last two weeks, I've… sometimes when I'm at a spot in the house where something happed it will trigger me into… a certain state, where I relive the events as if they were happening at that moment. Mostly it's uncle Vernon who triggers them, he looks a lot like her…"

Mr. Weasley blanched.

"Rose, I want you to know, you do not have to go back…"

"I know Mr. Weasley. I know there are other solutions, but I agree with Dumbledore, Voldemort is going to come back at some point, and the bloodwards can protect me when that moment comes. So, I do have to go back every summer, just for a short while."

Mr. Weasley nodded, understanding.

"You are a brave young woman, Rose. Your parents would have been proud."

Rose had to look away for a moment, blinking rapidly, avoiding the tears lurking behind her eyes.

"Rose, I just want you to know…"

Rose focused on Mr. Weasley once more, pure honesty in his eyes.

"If it is ever too much, if you ever can't bear it anymore, you have a home here. Me and Molly love to have you in our home, so never doubt or think you have nowhere to go."

Rose had to swallow hard at those words. She almost regretted telling Dumbledore she would go back each year. But she pulled herself together, it's only a few days and then she can come here.

Rose smiled widely at Mr. Weasley, putting all her gratitude in that smile. Mr. Weasley smiled back as well.

"Now, it's important you eat chocolate every day to get it out of your system. If you ever experience a panic attack in this house, I want you to come to me. Nobody will be in trouble, but we'll have to look into this. Okay?"

Rose nodded.

"Excellent! Now let's go back inside."

Mr. weasley had instantly turned back to his normal cheery self.

Rose was sitting in the sofa now, hot mug of chocolate milk in hand, looking outside. She felt strange after the conversation, like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She felt more relaxed.

Strangely, she didn't feel as a guest anymore, she felt like she was home, and it warmed her heart.

Of course, that could be the chocolate. Rose took another sip.

"Hey…"

Rose tore her eyes away from the vast fields of green outside and looked up.

George was standing in front of her in his bathrobe.

"I just wanted to say sorry again. It was really stupid, we didn't think."

Rose didn't feel a trace of her fury from yesterday anymore. She smiled widely at George and patted the spot next to her.

"It's okay, I'm over it."

George seemed a bit phased at first but smiled back and sat down.

Rose got a playful grin.

"When where you guy's going to tell me about this great shop I've been hearing about?"

"Euhm… This summer?"

"Mission accomplished." Rose laughed quietly. "You really have to show me the stuff, you've been working on. I want to know it all."

George grinned widely.

"Yeah, we can…" George started enthusiastically.

"Rose, honey, there's a visitor for you." Mrs. Weasley said smiling.

A visitor?

Rose's eyes grew wide in surprise and a yelp escaped her lips.

"No, no, no… I'm not dressed yet."

Rose jumped up and bolted to the stairs, never seeing the hard line George's mouth formed.

Rose quickly washed up and got ready, making a lot of noise.

Hermione and Ginny woke to her running around frantically.

"What's going on?"

"Cedric's here! And I don't know what to wear!"

Both girls instantly sat up straight and looked at Rose tossing through her trunk.

"That dress."

Rose had just picked up a red, flowy summer dress that started with a nice V-neck and stopped right above her knees.

"This?"

"Definitively!" Both girls nodded.

Rose quickly got dresses and combed her hair with the magic brush, her hair became wavy, but it wasn't as effective as the past years, she really needed a new one.

When she was ready she turned to her friends.

"This okay?"

"You look amazing Rose." Ginny complimented.

"Don't keep him waiting." Hermione added with a big smile.

Rose's stomach fluttered and a smile got glued to her face. It felt like it would never go away again.

"Thanks!"

Rose darted down the stairs, feeling like she was floating, and when she exited the stairs she saw him.

He was sitting at the kitchen table, talking with Mrs. Weasley.

He looked… amazing. Rose was taken aback by his appearance for a moment.

Cedric always wore his hair a bit messy. Had he become even taller? He was wearing a dark blue T-shirt that fit tight around him, showing of his defined muscles.

He was smiling at Mrs. Weasley and Rose was mesmerized by it for a second.

George was sitting next to him, his mood seemed to have lessened.

Suddenly Cedric seemed to sense she was standing there. He turned towards her and he smiled widely. Rose woke from her daze and had to be careful not to run towards him but walk instead.

Cedric didn't need to though, within two long strides he was standing in front of her and she flung her arms around him.

Cedric chuckled and quickly folded his arms around her as well.

"Oh, god, I have missed you Rose." He whispered in her hair.

"I've missed you too." Rose muttered against his shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of rain.

He withdrew a bit and looked into her eyes, the liquid chocolate in them made Rose melt.

And then finally, their lips met.

Electricity ran through Rose's spine and she was utterly happy.

Someone coughed.

The kiss ended too soon and Cedric stepped back, taking her hand and giving a gentle squeeze. Rose's cheeks were flushed and she looked at Mrs. Weasley with a big smile plastered on her face.

Mrs. Weasley had a worried look on her face, it wasn't directed towards Rose however, it was directed towards the stairs.

Rose turned and was just in time to see Georges retreating back. After a few moments, they heard a door slam shut.

"What was that about?" Cedric wondered.

"I honestly have no idea. I've noticed him switching moods a lot lately. I'll have to ask Fred about it." Rose responded.

While she said that, a knot was created in her stomach, like she was missing something.

Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat.

"So, I've started breakfast, have you already eaten Cedric?"

Cedric cheeks flushed a little.

"I have to admit, I was in a bit of a hurry…"

Mrs. Weasley smiled.

"It's fine dear. Pull up a chair, the rest will be there shortly."

Rose and Cedric sat down at the table, next to each other, never releasing their hands.

Cedric was rubbing patterns in Rose's hand and her stomach fluttered again.

It didn't take long for the rest to join them.

Ginny and Hermione were smiling widely at Rose and Cedric. Bill and Charlie introduced themselves to Cedric and Charlie sat down next to him.

They started talking about Quidditch and Rose had to smile. Next was Ron, he still looked very sleepy but also had a frown on his face.

He sat down next to Rose and in front of Hermione.

"Hey Ron, what's going on with George?" Rose asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. He came upstairs in a foul mood, it looked like he wanted to break everything in my room. I was about to ask what was going on but then Fred and him threw me out of my own room. Totally bonkers."

Ron shrugged and dug into the breakfast that was on the table. Taking some eggs and bacon on his plate.

Rose frowned, he sounds really pissed. It boggled her, he was fine this morning.

When everyone was halfway their plates, the twins finally joined.

Fred looked cheery and mingled into the conversations immediately, George looked blank.

He took some breakfast on his plate with a blank and neutral face.

During breakfast, George didn't utter a word and he didn't look at anyone.

Mrs. Weasley was constantly throwing glances towards him and then towards Rose. Rose hoped she wouldn't think that Rose had done something to make him so mad.

The first week at the burrow went by in a flash.

Cedric visited every day, hanging around with Rose, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Fred.

George had become distant and Rose's curiosity was never sated.

She had tried talking to Fred about it, but he had laughed it away. Told her he had gone mad from all the fumes while experimenting for their shop.

Ron was as confused as Rose.

Only Ginny and Hermione threw knowing looks at each other, but when Rose asked about it they told her they had no idea what was going on.

George rarely came out with them when they went swimming, that's right, Rose owns a few bathing suits now, or when they went out to play quidditch.

The week went by rather quickly and before she knew it, it was time to go to Cedric's place.

It was too much of a hassle to take the trunk so Mrs. Weasley gave her a bag to put some clothes into. Rose was wearing her bathing suit underneath some shorts and a green T-shirt.

Cedric had invited everyone to go swimming in the pond not far from his house.

Change of scenery and apparently, it had a swinging rope.

Everybody was coming this time, even George, although he was very silent.

Since they were with such a big group they couldn't apparate or side apparate in this case. So, they walked. Mr. Weasley accompanied them, he had some things to discuss with Cedric's dad.

It was a very long walk, Rose hoped that Cedric didn't have to do this every day, that his dad was side apparating him, because this distance was ridiculous.

They were joking around a lot until a house became visible at the horizon.

A forest stretched out behind it.

It was nothing like the Burrow, but didn't have anything in common with privet drive either.

The house was relatively simple and normal sized.

What stood out however, was how much glass there was. There were entire walls of glass.

It had to have a spectacular view on the forest, Rose was sure of it.

Rose saw that Cedric and his father were waiting in front of the house.

"Good morning Arthur!"

Cedric's father called joyfully.

"Good morning Amos!" Mr. Weasley said just as joyful.

Rose smiled widely at Cedric, he smiled right back. With a fluttering heart, Rose realized that smile was enough to brighten her whole day.

"Ah, Rose. How good to see you again!" Mr. Diggory said with a pleased look.

"Thank you for letting me stay in your home Mr. Diggory."

"It's a pleasure to have you Rose."

Mr. Diggory looked at the rest of the youngsters surrounding Rose.

"Are these all yours Arthur?"

"Only the redheads, except Rose but she certainly looks the part." Mr. Weasley laughed.

"This is Hermoine, a friend of Ron's, this is Ron, Fred, George and Ginny." Mr. Weasley pointed to everyone to introduce them.

"My two eldest, Bill and Charlie, stayed at home."

"Well, Rose does fit exactly in." Mr. Diggory laughed.

Rose looked around and they were right, she could easily be mistaken for a Weasley. Although she didn't have freckles like the rest, her fiery red hair fits right in. Rose smiled at that. Part of the family.

"Well Cedric, I leave them to you. Come Arthur, the rest has already arrived."

Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory went into the house.

Cedric smiled at all of them, but the biggest smile was for Rose.

Rose had to push back the urge to jump up and kiss him senseless, but they were careful around the rest. His first visit was their only slip up. After that they were always careful that they were alone when they kissed. Rose felt it was rude to do so with others around them and Cedric shared the same sentiment.

"So, follow me."

Cedric lead the way towards the forest. Rose walked quickly to be beside him and in reflex they intertwined their hands.

"I'm so happy you'll be staying with me this week." Cedric said. "I won't have to let you go for a whole week." He sounded genuinely happy about that.

"Please, you'll be happy to be rid of me at the end of the week." Rose said teasingly.

"Never." Cedric chuckled.

The group walked a while talking about a lot of nothings.

Until finally…

"Here we are."

They stepped out of the forest into a big clearing with a giant pond in the middle.

The sun had full access because of the clearing and Rose could imagine the water was nice and warm because of it.

"The last one in the water is a dunderhead!" she shouted and stripped herself quickly.

Everybody started stripping and as soon as Rose was done she bolted towards the water.

Taking a great leap and cannonballing into the water.

She never got the chance to see who was the dunderhead. By the time she resurfaced, everyone was in the water.

"What no broom this time?" Fred said with a laugh.

"I didn't bring it with me." Rose winked, Cedric looked confused.

"Two summer back we went swimming and we did a competition, most impressive jump into the water." Rose quickly explained. "They were being cocky so I used my broom. I won." Rose shrugged.

Cedric laughed at loud.

"Yes, and she is a master at watertag. We had to team up to get her." Fred added.

Ginny laughed.

"I remember. George finally caught her."

"Well, that I have to see." Cedric laughed.

"WATERTAG! Tag you're it." Ginny shouted and she tagged Fred and hurriedly swam away.

They chased each other through the water, filling the clearing with laughs.

Ginny had improved her game quite a bit, Ron couldn't take advantage of her anymore.

Hermione was surprisingly fast as well, but the two seekers, Cedric and Rose, never got tagged.

They high-fived each time they passed each other.

"Oh, come on!" Ron shouted when Rose deftly swam out of reach again. "I'm sick of you two always escaping!"

Rose stuck out her tongue to Ron.

"Swim faster! Then you'll catch me." She laughed.

"Worry not little brother…" George started, he had a whisper of a smile on his face.

"… we'll get them!" Fred finished.

"Swim, Cedric!" Rose screamed.

They deftly swam apart and started evading everyone, just like two years ago. Rose was having a blast.

She saw Cedric getting closed in by Ginny and Hermione.

"Look out!"

"Argh." Cedric let out a surprised cry when both girls collided with him and he went under water. She couldn't look long though because Fred and Ron were cornering her and she swam deftly out of the way. They were repeating the same move as last time and this time Rose dove underwater and was able to avoid George. When she came up again she let out a very happy laugh.

The boy's where grinning and continued the chase and Rose swam away all to happy.

Cedric didn't even bother, he was exhausted from avoiding everyone himself and was satisfied watching them from the edge of the pond. Laughing at the scene before him.

It took a while but Rose started getting tired and her movements became slower.

"Gotcha!"

Strong arms encased her suddenly. Rose was surprised at the strength of them, it was like she was locked in an iron cage.

She looked up to see who her captor was, it was George again.

Rose was surprised at their proximity, she could count every individual freckle on his face and feel his hot breath against her cheek. George smiled lightly and his eyes where burning with something Rose couldn't quite place.

This moment seemed to last an eternity and Rose felt confused.

"Good job!"

"Well done George!"

"Finally!"

Rose softly pushed George away to go back to the rest and just before she succeeded she tough he tightened his grip around her. But he gave way and Rose was released, surprised by the sudden chill on her skin. Had she imagined it?

Rose turned to the rest, who were smiling and laughing.

Except Cedric, he was swimming towards her with a frown on his face.

George got some more praise for catching Rose and he had a happy smile on his face, a smile Rose hadn't seen for a while.

Suddenly Rose was warm again, Cedric had reached her and pulled her towards him.

"You're like a fish you know? I thought they'd never catch you." He whispered in her ear.

Rose smiled widely up to him.

"I got tired."

"I can feel that, you're trembling. Want to rest at the shore?" Rose nodded.

They both swam back and left the water.

While Rose was getting out a towel to lay down on the grass, she glanced at George again. He still had that happy look on his face. Had he been bored this whole summer? Was he happy he'd won at a challenge?

"Hey! You're getting out?" Ron suddenly shouted.

"Yeah, just for a little, I'm tired."

Ron shrugged and the rest resumed their water games.

Cedric laid down next to her. He was so close, Rose could feel his body heat radiating from him.

It made her smile.

The sun was warming her skin pleasantly. A soft breeze cooling it down occasionally.

It took her a while but she felt a touch on her arm. It was like a whisper of a touch but it was very pleasant.

Rose slowly opened her eyes and looked directly in the molten chocolate eyes of Cedric.

There was a sweetness in them that made her heart swell.

"You fell asleep."

"Oh."

Cedric suddenly stopped with his soft caresses.

"Don't stop." Rose smiled. "It feels nice."

Cedric smiled back widely, affection in his face. He immediately continued stroking her arm softly.

"How long was I out?"

"I think about an hour."

"Oh." Rose was surprised she slept for so long.

"The rest have been resting for a half an hour or so. They're talking of getting back into the water."

Rose slowly sat up and looked around.

She saw more towels on the grass. Ginny and Hermione were still laying on them, chatting happily.

The twins and Ron were walking towards the pond again.

"Hmm." Rose sighed, Cedric's caresses were setting her arm ablaze. It felt so nice, so caring. She wanted to swim, but she didn't want the feeling of his kindness end.

Cedric scooted closer.

"Don't worry, you're staying with me for a week. We'll be able to do this a lot." He whispered in her ear. She felt his hot breath in her neck and suddenly her cheeks where burning.

She needed to cool down, like now.

"I'll hold you to that." She answered.

Cedric chuckled.

"Let's go."

He took her hand and they walked towards the lake.

"Hey you guys going in again?" Ginny asked.

"Yep."

"Cool." She jumped up and followed them.

Rose's eye fell on the swinging rope Cedric had been talking about and walked towards it.

"See you in the water." She winked at him and started climbing the tree to which the rope was attached.

When she was high enough she held the rope tightly and swung towards the water. When she was at the peak of the swing she let go, did a flip and landed in the water.

The water cooled down her skin immediately. The relief was so sudden, Rose hoped it wasn't a sign that she had a sunburn.

They played several more games in the water and the sun slowly started lowering with the sounds of laughter filling the air.

After the last game, which Ron lost, again, they decided to get out of the water.

Rose and Hermione where laughing at Ron's red face, teasing him because he lost.

They turned to leave the water when Rose suddenly felt two strong hands push her under water and keep her there.

The pond around her disappeared and she was at privet drive in the bathroom.

Marge was cackling loudly above her while her hands the size of saucers where bruising her shoulders keeping her under water in the tub.

This time Rose didn't freeze though. Panic rose at the tightening of her lungs in need of air and she started kicking her legs around her widely.

When the release of pressure didn't come, panic almost made her heart stop and a shockwave erupted from her body.

The pressure was finally gone and she pushed herself up gasping for air.

Immediately after her lungs filled with air she started looking for Marge.

But all she saw was the pond and her friend's shocked faces.

She started coughing loudly, tears flowing freely.

Cedric swam towards her with a panic-stricken look on his face.

"Are you completely bonkers!" A booming voice shouted across the lake the moment she was safely in his arms.

The furious voice hadn't come from Cedric, he was guiding her softly towards the edge of the water.

"She stunned me!"

"Of course she did, fucking idiot! Why did you do that?!"

"I was just messing around!"

"Did you forget what dad told us? Have you lost your mind!"

Rose's cheeks started burning at that. What dad told us? Did Mr. Weasley tell them something?

"I was just playing! Woh wo wo…"

Rose was finally at the edge and climbed out of the water. Still coughing, reaching for her neck, looking for soreness. But she had to remind herself that it hadn't been Marge. No bruises will appear on her skin.

Cedric quickly wrapped her in a towel and started rubbing her back.

Rose finally looked at the scene in the water.

George's face was completely red, indicating it had been him who had been shouting like a maniac.

He was currently holding his little brother by the neck.

Fred was looking at the scene with his mouth in a hard line, fury evident.

Hermione and Ginny where running towards Rose, worried looks on their faces.

"Let go of me!" Ron suddenly shouted.

Realization hit Rose like a train. Ron had pushed her under water, and everyone knew about her panic attacks. Mr. Weasley had told them.

"See how you like it!" George pushed him under.

"No!" Rose shrieked. "Let him go!" She got up, her heart clenching.

George immediately released Ron who was sputtering.

Rose started shaking and Cedric pulled her towards his chest.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked softly.

"I'm fine, don't fuss over me." Rose answered quietly. Hermione and Ginny nodded and started packing her things. Even though she had said not to fuss she stayed very close to Cedric. The three brothers left the water and George stomped off to get his stuff.

Ron approached Rose hesitantly.

"Be careful of your next actions." Cedric said coldly, a warning shone through very clearly and Rose shivered.

"I'm sorry Rose, I wasn't thinking." Ron muttered, his face red in shame.

"It's okay Ron. No big deal."

Cedric pulled her even closer at those words and George scowled.

"No big deal she says." He muttered.

"What exactly did your dad warn you about?" Rose asked Ron.

Ron flushed even more.

"He… He told us you had been having panic attacks and we shouldn't be too forceful in our games. And if you had another one we should tell him."

"He warned us not to treat you like glass, he didn't want you to know we knew. You wouldn't want to be treated differently, but we shouldn't do anything you could see as threatening." Ginny clarified.

"Did he tell you why…?"

Ginny tilted her head.

"Something about the lingering effects of a dementor. You did almost get a dementor's kiss, it's normal that you have some side effects." Ginny explained.

Rose had very mixed feelings about this. She didn't really want them to know, for the reason Ginny just said, and because she didn't want to seem weak. But on the other hand, her heart was warmed from the concern Mr. Weasley had shown. Not only that, he made sure her fear of being treated differently was avoided. And he hadn't given away her secret, what she was seeing in these panic attacks.

Like a father would do. Rose realized in shock. This was the second time he had acted like a father and Rose had never felt so looked after.

"Let's go." Cedric muttered.

After gathering everything, they were off, back to Cedric's home.

The atmosphere was very tense. Ron was walking alone. Everyone was pissed at him and Rose felt sorry for him. She knew he hadn't meant anything by it. He shouldn't have to be so careful around her.

But every time she tried to walk next to him, Cedric guided her next to him again.

After her fourth attempt Rose was losing her patience.

"Oh, come on knock it off guys. He didn't mean anything by it." She snapped.

"Yeah, guys, it's not our little brothers fault he has no brains." George said with a hard edge that was far from humor.

Rose rolled her eyes and wanted to throw a retort but Cedric house came into view. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory where sitting outside, enjoying a drink.

"Ah the youngsters have returned." Mr. Diggory said happily.

Mr. Weasley picked up on the tense mood.

"What happened?"

"Our brother is an idiot, that's what!" George snapped.

"That's enough!" Rose snapped right back. "He did it to me, I'm the only one who has a right to be mad at him and I'm not. So, cut it out!"

George turned away from her. Anger still behind his eyes, but he held his tongue.

Mr. Weasley frowned.

"Ron pushed me under water and it triggered something. He apologized, I'm fine and forgave him. End of story." Rose said calmly but decisively.

"I see." Mr. Weasley looked at his son with a trace of disappointment in his face.

"Maybe it's best to get them inside." Mr. Diggory suggested.

"It's fine Amos, we're going home. Come on, let's get walking."

"See you in a week Rose."

"Yeah see ya."

"Have fun!"

"Bye."

The Weasley's and Hermione left while Rose was guided inside with Cedric. Rose looked at their retreating forms and hoped they would give Ron too much of a hard time.

It was late in the evening and Rose was curled up in Cedric's arms. He was playing with her hair and Rose couldn't be any happier.

Because of the events at the pond, Rose hadn't had time to feel nervous to meet Mrs. Diggory.

Which was good because she would have had no reason to. Mrs. Diggory was a very sweet and understanding person. Rose was amazed at how much her personality matched Cedric's.

It was a very pleasant meal and nobody brought up what had happened at the pond.

Just before Mr. and Mrs. Diggory retreated to their room she had given Rose and Cedric a cup of hot chocolate and explained that Rose's things were already in her room.

It was the first time Rose had heard a bit of firmness in her voice.

No sleeping in the same room. Got it.

Rose had to chuckle at the memory.

"What's funny?" Cedric muttered.

"You're so much like your mother. Sweet, gentle, understanding, patient, but when you want a point to cross over your voices get the same kind of sharpness. Although yours is a lot sharper."

Cedric hummed happily.

"Why are you thinking about that?"

"Oh nothing, I was remembering how she was explaining where my room is."

Cedric chuckled too now. It vibrated through his chest towards Rose's back.

"No sleeping, in the same room, huh." Rose teased.

"I agree."

"You do?" Rose asked surprised.

"You'd be way to tempting, we wouldn't get any sleep."

Rose's cheeks burned at that.

"Besides, it's too early for that."

His voice didn't leave any room for argument.

"So, I'm tempting, huh?"

"You have no idea…" Cedric whispered in her ear and Rose shuddered.

"Hmm tempting for what?"

"You know what."

"Oh?" Rose turned and looked at Cedric. A sly grin spread across her face.

"For this?" She whispered only inches away from his lips.

Cedric groaned.

"Rose…" A warning.

One she happily chose to ignore. She made the last inches disappear and instantly felt his soft lips on hers. She let her hands slip in his hair, while completely turning towards him. Moving her lips with his made an electric feeling spread across her skin.

She had stumbled into a world filled with magic but this moment was the most magic of all to her.

A slow burning fire ignited in her core.

She sensed how Cedric was holding back, how he was only following her lead and even slowing down again.

Frustrated he wasn't feeling the same things as her, Rose threw herself even more into the kiss.

She licked his bottom lip and opened her mouth slightly. Cedric's lips parted and the moment their tongues met all his carefulness seemed to be thrown out of the window.

Cedric growled and pulled her closer towards him, turning their body's so Rose would be laying down with him on top of her. Their kiss deepened and Rose felt the air around them get hotter.

His lips left hers and started a trail from her mouth, to her neck, to her collarbone. Rose hummed and Cedric groaned before pulling away completely.

"What are you doing to me?" Cedric said hoarsely.

"Come back." Rose pouted.

"No."

Cedric sat up straight and got up.

"Aww. We were getting to the good part." Rose wined.

"You have no idea…" Cedric muttered quietly.

He picked up their mugs and put them in the kitchen.

"Let's go to bed."

He reached out to her and Rose tried to pull him into the sofa again. Cedric stood his ground however and she ended up pulling herself out of the sofa.

Before she could do anything he already left for the stairs.

"This is you." Cedric whispered.

"Oh, okay." Rose entered a fairly simple room. Just a bed with a nightstand and a light on it. The closet stood at the other end of the room. Simple, clean, just like a guestroom should be.

Rose turned towards Cedric but saw him leaving.

"Hey! Don't I get a goodnight kiss?"

Cedric turned back and gave her a chaste peck on the lips.

"Goodnight." He said smiling before he turned away towards his room. Leaving a very confused Rose behind.

Their week together passed fairly quickly.

They went swimming a lot, or just outside laying in the grass enjoying the sun on their skin.

Walking through the forest, hand in hand, and Rose had to admit to herself that it's quite addictive not to have to leave his side.

Spending every day together for the whole day was pure happiness for her.

The only thing that confused her to no end was that Cedric didn't let them stay up after his parents anymore. The moment they signaled they're going to sleep, Cedric gets up and suggests the same.

They didn't share another moment as the first night anymore and it worried Rose that he apparently hadn't enjoyed it as much as she did.

Another thing that troubled her was how he avoided his father the whole week.

Each time his father announced he wanted Cedric to help him that afternoon, Cedric was always ready with an excuse. Mainly plans that he had made with Rose. And when people from work were supposed to come over, he practically fled the scene with her.

Rose knew his father wanted Cedric to join the ministry and Cedric wanted anything but that. His dream was to become a teacher. He clearly hadn't talked to his father about that yet.

On the last day of her visit, Rose was hesitating if she should talk about it with his mom.

She had been very nice towards Rose and they talked a lot while cleaning up after lunch or dinner.

They were doing the dishes after lunch and Cedric and his father were waiting in the living room.

Rose was fighting an internal battle with herself.

Speak up, or say nothing.

It wasn't her place. She knew she didn't like it herself when people meddled with her affairs but she wanted Cedric to be happy.

"You're awfully silent today." Mrs. Diggory inquired, suddenly.

Rose looked at her with her troubles plainly on her face.

Mrs. Diggory smiled a gentle smile, creating wrinkles around her chocolate brown eyes. Her hair was long, thick, wavy and it fell on her shoulders.

"You want to talk about something but you're not sure it's your place to do so?" Mrs. Diggory guessed.

Rose silently nodded, amazed she pick up on that.

"It's about Cedric and his father, isn't it? You're wondering why Cedric always runs away from his father?"

Rose decided to take the leap.

"It's not that I'm wondering about it, I know why he does that." She said carefully.

Mrs. Diggory looked surprised for a second.

"I'm wondering if you do." Rose said softly.

"I have my suspicions." Mrs. Diggory said kindly. "He doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps?"

"No."

"And he's afraid to disappoint him when he tells him."

"Yes."

Mrs. Diggory nodded.

"I though as much, I was going to talk to him about that."

Rose let out a sigh of relief. She knew, they were going to talk.

"Does he know what he wants to do?" Mrs. Diggory asked curiously.

Rose hesitated for a moment.

"He wants to be a teacher."

Mrs. Diggory smiled widely.

"That'll suit him perfectly." She said.

"That's what I though. He's so patient and understanding. He'll be the best teacher ever." Rose answered happily.

Mrs. Diggory smiled widely and reached out to Rose. Holding her hand and giving a gently squeeze.

"You truly care deeply for my son, don't you?"

"Very much so."

"I'm glad he has you."

Rose was very pleased with herself. She didn't meddle too much, but Cedric's mom knew what was going on now. She was going to talk to them and everything will turn out for the best. She was sure of it.

The rest of the day sadly went by in a flash and before Rose could take a breath it was already evening. She curled up like a ball in Cedric arms again. Mrs. Diggory was reading a book and Mr. Diggory was reading the newspaper.

Cedric was absently combing through her hair again when Mr. and Mrs. Diggory stood up to go to bed. Rose panicked and suddenly clung to Cedric like he was her safety vest.

She didn't want to say goodbye.

She'd miss his morning smile and goodnight kiss. The way they spent every minute of the day together. She didn't want to let go.

With a heavy heart, she was waiting for him to say they'd be going to bed as well.

But he didn't, and they left.

Rose's heart leaped.

"You still want to stay a bit?" Rose asked silently, afraid he'll change his mind.

"Somehow, I can't bring myself to let you go." He whispered into her hair.

That simple line was enough to fill her heart with joy.

"Me neither, I was afraid you'd want to end the night early again." Rose couldn't help but sound a bit hurt.

This made Cedric still his movements.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Rose muttered.

Cedric turned her towards him looking straight into her eyes.

"Tell me." He whispered.

Rose shook her head. She was afraid for his reaction.

"Rose, you can tell me anything, talk to me."

"You've been ending the nights very early this week, I… you…"

"What?"

"I feel like you don't like kissing me anymore…" Rose blurted out.

Cedric's eyes widened in shock.

"It's okay… I'm just a little…"

"Oh, you're clueless, aren't you?" Cedric chuckled. That made Rose cheek flare up in embarrassment.

"Fine…" She wanted to pull away but he pulled her back and suddenly his lips were on hers.

Hungrily moving against her, his hand cupping her cheek. The other pulling her closer.

Rose's heart leaped.

She tightened her hold on his shirt and played with his hair.

Cedric nibbled her lower lip and Rose sucked in air in surprise. His tongue deftly found hers and Rose could feel her body heating up. A hunger taking over, kissing more urgently.

Her skin was on fire and she felt her magic coursing through her veins. Sizzling in the air.

Rose pressed herself closer to him and they seemed to want to melt together.

Softly lowering her on the sofa. The pressure of his body dizzying her.

Rose felt a little lightheaded, he started trailing kisses along her neck again and Rose's breath got stuck in her throat.

Her hand traced his chest and found a way under his shirt.

The moment her hand made contact with his skin, his lips disappeared.

Cedric sat up straight, out of breath, his hair disheveled and Rose noticed his eyes were black from his pupils being so wide.

"Damn it." Cedric muttered.

"Come back." Rose wined, just like last time.

"No." Cedric said decisively.

"But why, I thought it was nice…" Rose muttered, hurt clear in her voice again.

"Oh Rose, can't you see I'm trying to be considerate here? I'm trying to do good by you, but you're making it damned difficult for me." Cedric said hoarsely.

"What?" Rose said confused.

"It's not that I don't like kissing you, I like it too much." Cedric said with a look like he wanted a message to come across.

"How can you like it too much?" Rose said.

Cedric sighed and went through his hair.

He approached her again looking at her with a fire burning in his eyes. The kind of look that made Rose feel like she was in free fall.

"You're killing me Rose." Cedric groaned, while burying his face in her neck.

"Euhm."

"You know, kissing like that leads to other steps that are too early for us to make. And you're making it extremely difficult for me to keep holding back." He muttered while planting a kiss occasionally along her neck.

"Oh." The puzzle pieces suddenly clicked together and Rose felt her cheeks burning. Oh my god.

"OH." She exclaimed again.

"I'm sorry I'm such a weak creature." Cedric muttered again.

"So, kissing me is too good?"

"Yes."

"We should take it down a notch?"

"Yes, please."

"I can do that."

Cedric chuckled and softly kissed her lips again. This time Rose followed his lead. This kiss was so filled with sweetness she felt like she should be on a sugar high.

His affection shone through in these kisses and she felt like this was Cedric to his core.

When their lips parted, he looked at her with a wide smile.

"I can so live with this." Rose muttered and Cedric laughed out loud before their lips connected again.

* * *

I hope you guy's enjoyed!

Let me know what you think.

XXX D.


	5. Chapter 5: The Riddle House

Chapter Five

The Riddle House

Where was she?

Darkness surrounded her and she could barely see a thing.

A chill passed through her but it was a weird chill.

Not the kind your body feels and reacts to, the kind that clenches your heart and colors everything around you gray.

The kind that just tells you this isn't a good place to be.

Where was she?

Suddenly all the gray around her became cleared, she slowly started to see shapes and surroundings, like her vision had just adjusted itself to the darkness around her.

What she saw made even more confused than she had been before.

She was in a corridor of a house. A very old house from the looks of the degraded wallpaper and the scratched damaged floors.

The shrieking shack briefly came to mind but it felt different, tragically different. Like loss, blood, horror, and fear had seeped deep into these walls.

No she was quite sure she wasn't in the shrieking shack.

Before her eyes stood an old man. He was leaning heavily on his cane and looked like he had seen a ghost.

The older man was huddled behind a door that was slightly ajar, a stripe of goldish light across his face. Very interested in what was happening in the next room.

The more she observed him the clearer it became he was a Muggle.

And suddenly, like someone had flipped a switch, sounds came through as well. The pleasant crackle of a fire first.

The fire was alit in the room where the goldish light came from. The moaning of the house came next, adding to the sounds. This was a very old and uncared for house, the joints were almost screaming in pain.

And finally, voices came through. The voices the old man was listening so carefully to.

"My Lord, if you are still hungry, the bottle isn't empty yet."

The voice sounded high and fear tinged through, as if saying the wrong words would have horrible consequences.

Something in her stirred, the voice sounded familiar.

"Later." A second voice sounded. This voice however chilled her to the bone. "Wormtail, I need you to put me closer to the fire."

Wormtail! So that means the second voice is…

The old man stirred. She could see he was leaning in closer to hear better, while the sound of a chair being dragged sounded.

"Where is Nagini?" The chilling voice asked.

"I… I don't know, My Lord. She… She's exploring the house, I think…" The first voice answered nervously.

"You milk her before we rest. The travel has tired me greatly, I'll need to feed through the night." The cold voice continued.

This confused her, not only her, the old man leaned even closer to the door, brows furrowed.

"My Lord, how long are we planning to stay here?"

"A week. Maybe longer. It's quite comfortable and we can't proceed with the plan until the Quidditch World Cup is over."

The words seemed to confuse the Muggle as he stuck a finger in his ear and turned. Clearly confused about the words used.

"The… the Quidditch World Cup, My Lord?" ask Wormtail. "Forgive me My Lord, but I do not follow. Why do we wait?"

"Because, you fool, this event has the whole Ministry of Magic is on high alert, obsessed with security, trying to keep the Muggles safe and clueless. We can't risk it."

She could see the Muggles knuckles turn white from holding on to his cane so tightly. This conversation must sound ludicrous to him.

"So, My Lord you are still set on the original plan." Wormtail said.

"Of course." A sliver of menace lined the cold voice this time and she realized he was losing his patience.

"It could be done without her My Lord, without Rose Potter." Wormtail said with a shivering voice.

If she hadn't known this was a very dangerous situation before, she definitively knew it now.

"Without Rose Potter?" the second voice now muttered. "I see…"

"My Lord, I'm not suggesting this for the wellbeing of the girl. It's just that it would be much quicker and safer to do. If I leave today I could find you someone suitable in less than two days."

"We could use someone else… that's true…"

"Yes." The first voice sounded relieved. "It would so much safer, the girl is too well protected."

"And you are suggesting you would get me a substitute? I wonder Wormtail, are you planning on abandoning me? Have I grown so tiresome to take care of?"

"My Lord! Of course not, I feel no desire to leave your side."

"Do not lie to me!" The sharpness in his voice cut through bones and she realized Wormtail will have to be careful for the rest of this conversation, or his life will be taken.

"I am no fool Wormtail. You are regretting the decision of returning to me. I revolt you, I can see it in your eyes each time you look at me."

"No! My devotion…"

"Your devotion is a joke, a last resort. You have nowhere to turn to and sought out me. How am I to survive without you, how will I feed, who'll milk Nagini?" Disgust dripped from the cold voice, who clearly wasn't happy with the whole situation either.

"But you seem so much stronger My Lord…"

"Liar! You know very well I wouldn't survive a few days alone. Silence!" The voice snapped when Wormtail was sputtering, and he fell silent.

When the second voice spoke up again it sounded more as a hiss than a whisper.

"I have my reasons to use the girl as I have explained multiple times and I will not discuss this again. I've waited thirteen years, a couple of months less or more will not make any difference."

The voice left no room for discussion and Wormtail could only stay silent and listen.

"My plan will be effective, even with all the protection around her. All I need is a little courage from you, or you will feel Lord Voldemorts wrath!"

"But My Lord, Bertha Jorkins's disappearance will not go unnoticed for much longer and if I kill…"

"If?" the second voice interrupted "IF? If you do as I command no one will be the wiser about one more death. One more and the way to Rose Potter is free. You will not have to do it alone, by that time my faithful servant will have joined our cause…"

"I am a faithful servant…" Wormtail whispered defeated.

The second voice scoffed.

"I need someone who's intelligent, someone who's loyalty has never wavered. And you don't fulfill either demand."

"I found you… I brought you Bertha Jorkins…" Wormtail said as if he was just called a bad boy and wanted to prove different.

"While that is true… it is also true you didn't know how useful she would be…" The second voice said amused.

"I did think she would be useful…"

"Liar!" The second voice said again this time the cruel amusement was that much clearer. "However, I can't deny that she was vital. Without her I couldn't have come up with our plan. That's why you will have a reward, Wormtail. I will give you an honor that any of my followers would kill for."

"R-really? What…?" Wormtail sounded fearful again.

"Ah, I won't spoil the surprise but you will be just as useful as Bertha Jorkins."

"Are… Are y-you going to k-kill me?" Wormtail asked with a very shaky voice.

"Now Wormtail why would I do that? I had to kill Bertha because she would have blabbed her mouth about us and that's something we want to avoid."

Her attention was drawn to the Muggle again. He had started shaking and sweating. She knew he couldn't understand half what was said, but what he could understand was about murders that had taken place and will come to pass.

His eyes seemed to be flitting between the door and the escape of the corridor, he looked indecisive about what he should do.

"One more murder… and my faithful servant will be at Hogwarts and Rose Potter will me mine."

"W-what will you do after…"

"We've gone over this Wormtail…"

"I mean the girl…"

"Concerned…?" the cold voice hissed in disgust.

"N-no My Lord.. just…"

"I haven't decided yet. Killing her would be the cleanest solution."

The old man shuddered. And to her, the room just got a lot colder.

"You have seen her Wormtail, could she be persuaded to join our cause?"

Wormtail seemed to have difficulty finding his voice again.

"I-I… I don't know."

Silence filled the room again. Suddenly a gasp erupted from Wormtail and a pained groan.

"Interesting…" The second voice muttered. "She is a lot like her lovely mother. I can see how she could be desired by men. Maybe I could keep her as a prize, or a way to create more loyalties."

Wormtail squirmed again.

"Thank you for lending me your mind, I will ponder this. After all we have time. Now be quiet! I can hear Nagini…"

Suddenly the corridor seemed to shift and she realized her angle was changing. She got lower to the ground and saw the old man's back now, slowly crawling closer.

She could see how the Muggle froze at the sound of her getting closer. He turned and his eyes widened in fear.

She passed him and entered the room engulfed with the goldish light from the fire. She saw Wormtail looking down at her with unease on his face.

"Nagini has interesting news, Wormtail."

"She does, My Lord?" Wormtail answered warily.

"Yes, she tells me there's a Muggle standing right at the door, listening in on our whole conversation."

She could see how Wormtail threw himself at the door and flung it wide open. The Muggle stood there with complete shock written over his face.

"Where are our manners, Wormtail, invite him inside."

Wormtail signaled the Muggle to come inside and she wanted to scream, yell at him to run but all she could do was watch as the Muggle limped into the room.

"So, you heard everything…?"

"I've heard enough to call the police. You've killed people and are planning killing more. I warn you, my wife knows I'm here and if I don't come back…"

"You have no wife. And you told nobody you were coming over. Do not lie! I see through all lies!"

The Muggle stuck out his chin in defiance.

"If you're going to kill me than at least face me as a man." The Muggle said.

The second voice made a pensive sound.

"Wormtail! Turn this chair around at once."

Wormtail whimpered.

"At once!"

Wormtail approached the chair and slowly turned it, scraping sounds filling the room.

Her view was solely on the muggle, she couldn't see the chair, but when Wormtail stopped turning the chair she knew it must be something horrible.

The Muggle turned completely white and let our a horrible, earsplitting, bone chilling scream.

A green light filled the room and he fell to the ground, unmistakably dead.

It filled her with horror and suddenly she got yanked away from the scene.

Miles away, in the burrow, Rose Potter woke with a shock.

* * *

So this is a new take on the original dream.

I hope you guy's liked it, let me know what you think :D

XXX D.


	6. Chapter 6: The Portkey

Chapter Six

The Portkey

Rose was breathing heavily, staring at the sealing, feeling as though she had ran a marathon.

Her hand were covering her scar, in the vein hope of easing the white hot pain shooting through it.

It felt as if someone had just pressed a bolt shaped burning iron to her face and a single tear escaped her eye.

Rose straightened and she scanned the room.

It was lit by a faint, misty white light that was filtering through the curtains from the full moon outside the window. The pink color on the wall of Ginny's bedroom had turned to gray. Rose looked at the sleeping forms of Ginny and Hermione. Relieved she didn't wake them by screaming or groaning from the pain.

Rose ran her fingers over the scar again.

It was still painful.

She got out of bed and walked very quietly towards the bathroom. She turned on the lamp in the bathroom and peered into the mirror on the wall above the sink.

Her hair was a mess, sticking to her face and her hazel eyes were wide from surprise.

Her eyes flitted to her scar but it looked as usual. She had half expected it to be red like a burn, but it looked completely normal. It still burned.

Rose took a washing cloth and let cold water pour over it. She pressed it against the scar hoping to calm it down.

She concentrated on what she had seen.

She had seen Wormtail, a muggle and the third presence had to be Voldemort.

A chill ran through her spine at the though. She hadn't been able to see him but the Muggle had screamed…

Had the scream woken her? His death? Or the burn in her scar…

Who had the Muggle been?

There was a snake as well, all though she hadn't seen it.

This was very confusing and Rose tried to recall more but it was like she was trying to catch sand that kept running through her fingers.

What had they been talking about? Murders…? They had killed someone and she had heard that name before, but who had it been…? And they were planning on killing someone else… they hadn't said a name though…

They were trying to get to someone… herself! They were trying to get to her!

Rose snapped her head up and look through the bathroom.

She slipped out of the bathroom and walked back to Ginny's bedroom. She stopped in front of the window and pulled back the curtains.

The vast field of green, now grayish, seemed the same as ever.

No one was there…

Of course no one was there, she was feeling a bit ridiculous.

Every groan and whisper that went through the Burrow had her on edge now. When one of the Weasley brothers let out a load snore, she practically jumped out of her skin.

Immediately after she had to stifle a loud.

When her heart started to calm down Rose rubbed her scar once more. The burning sensation was calming down.

That dream had felt so real, almost like a memory. Like she had been physically there.

Was that even possible? Did the scar make it possible to see visions of Voldemort?

She wanted to ask someone and the first person who came to mind, sadly, was Dumbledore.

He'd probably know but she wasn't really comfortable with letting him inside her head again.

Who else?

Maybe Mr. Weasley would have some knowledge about this… but she didn't want to worry him with something else too.

Lupin would probably know a lot, but Rose didn't know if it was appropriate to contact him…

Rose could suddenly slap herself.

Sirius! He has experience with dark magic, maybe he'll know.

Rose quickly grabbed some parchment and a quill.

Dear Sirius,

Thank you for your last letter.

I'm staying with the Weasley's now. The twins are a bit on the outs with their parents – they want to open a joke shop, can you believe it? They'd be a success, I'm sure of it.

Hanging around Ron, Hermione and Cedric every day has been fun.

I'm okay and excited to go to the world cup.

I have a question though. This morning I woke with my scar burning.

It's never done that before except when I faced Voldemort in my first year. He can't be here, right?

My scar is calming down now, but I wondered if you know of scars from curses that behave the same way?

I hope you're well and laying low.

Give a nice ferret to Buckbeak from me.

Rose

Finally, when the sun had risen, when the bedroom walls had turned gold and when sounds of movement could be heard from the kitchen down below, Rose cleared her nightstand of crumpled pieces of parchment and reread her finished letter.

Yes, thought Rose, that looked all right. She didn't want to put the dream in just yet. She had a feeling it would put a lot of people on high alert and she didn't want to be the one pulling the false alarm.

Satisfied she put it aside for when Hedwig returned and looked around the room once more.

Her eye paused on the calendar hanging on the wall.

That's right, it was her birthday today.

Mrs. Weasley was going to make dinner and all the Weasley's would be there, with Hermione of course and Cedric.

Cedric…

She would have love to be able to go to him now and talk this over with him. He'd be able to calm her down. But sadly she'd been back with the Weasley's for a week now.

She had loved staying with him. Never saying goodbye, but his dad would get really busy these weeks so she had to go back to the Weasley's.

She'd see him though today, along with her friends, she could talk to them about it in the morning.

Rose smiled widely and got dressed to start her birthday.

Rose skipped happily down the stairs and when she arrived in the kitchen, Cedric came into view.

He was sitting at the table already chatting happily with Mrs. Weasley.

Since he noticed how early Rose got up in the morning he made sure to arrive earlier as well.

His smile widened when he saw Rose walking into the kitchen and she sat down next to him.

In reflex their hands sought each other out and they intertwined their fingers.

"Good morning." Cedric said.

"Good morning." Rose answered happily.

Cedric leaned closer until his head was next to her ear.

"Happy birthday."

His free hand put a box on the table in front of her. It had a bow around it.

"Thank you." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't thank me yet, you don't know what's in it." Cedric chuckled.

"It's from you, I'm sure it's great." Rose muttered.

"Well, come on open it!" Ginny exclaimed happily.

Rose jolted away from Cedric and saw how Hermione and Ginny saw down at the table with curious looks on their faces.

Even Mrs. Weasley was looking at them with a very curious look on her face.

"Oh, okay."

Rose picked up the box and carefully pulled the bow away. And while she opened the lid she saw Cedric turning away with his ears slightly pink. Was he blushing?

With the lid gone, the item in the box took her breath away.

It was a silver ring. A simple band with the stem and leaves of a rose graved all around. At the top, there was a rose engraved into it. The silver had a special look about it, it was almost as if the reflection coming from it was a bit reddish.

"Oh."

Rose was stunned by the beauty of it. The girl's eyes turned wide when the ring came into view.

"Do you like it?" Cedric whispered, unsure by her silence.

"Like it?" Rose looked up at him and saw his face getting a bit pink. "I love it." She said with awe in her voice.

Rose carefully lifted the ring from its box.

"How did you know which size though?"

Cedric looked at her with confusion, and then chuckled. He took the ring from her fingers and slid it on her middle finger, it fit perfectly. Then he slid it off and slid it on her index finger, it fit perfectly as well.

"Magic." He said chuckling.

"Oh." Rose felt silly for asking.

Cedric slid it back on her middle finger.

"There."

Rose examined her hand with surprise. Her fingers looked more elegant because of the ring.

She smiled up at him and he smile back widely.

"Let us see!" Ginny exclaimed.

And Rose showed her hand to them.

"Ah young love." Mrs. Weasley said with a smile on her face. "Arthur gave me a ring as well, when we were still going to school, I still have it in my room."

"It's beautiful Rose." Ginny said dreamily.

"It fits your name." Hermione said with a smile.

"That was what I was going for." Cedric said.

"Thought as much."

"Well, Rose, I'm sure nothing can top that, but here's mine anyway." Hermione said with a smile while sliding her package over the table.

Rose opened it and saw a brush just like hers lying in it.

"It's not from the same shop though, it comes with a guaranty of the spell working up minimum 5 years."

"Aww thanks, Hermione, I really needed a new one." Rose got up and hugged Hermione.

"Mom, when can we give ours?" Ginny piped up.

"When the rest is up dear."

"Oooh is it presents time?" Fred exclaimed while coming down the stairs, followed by George. Fred walked right up to Rose and gave her a bearhug.

"Happy birthday, Rose."

"Thanks!" Rose smiled happily.

George walked up to her next and gave her a hug as well.

"Happy birthday." Somehow this hug didn't feel at all like the hug Fred had given her. When George pulled back and smiled at her, she looked at him confused.

Cedric suddenly stood next to her again. He was smiling but Rose noted the frown above his eyes.

Before Rose could think more of it, the rest of the brothers joined in.

Ron, Percy, Charlie and Bill all came down the stairs.

"Happy birthday. Rose."

Each gave her a hug, a hug like Fred's, not at all like George's. But Rose couldn't ponder it too long because more presents got pushed in her hands.

Ron gave her a big box with all kinds of different sweets in it. Bill gave her thick book with all the known and rumored magical treasures in them.

Charlie gave her, leaves, no, shells?

Rose examined the hot red shells. The red was very vivid, it was like there was a fire burning in them.

"Oh, wow, you're giving her that?" Bill exclaimed.

Charlie shrugged.

"I had way too many of them and I have a feeling Rose could use them, since she always gets in trouble."

Rose looked up confused.

"Euhm, I don't…"

Charlie laughed.

"They're scales from the stomach of an African Lavabelly. Very useful in shielding potions. Or you can just grind one to dust and put it in some water. If you drink that your skin becomes fire-resistant for an hour. " He explained.

"Isn't that really expensive though?" Rose said very surprised.

"Usually yeah, but I had to take care of an African Lavabelly a few weeks ago. He lost a lot of scales. I sold a lot of them already. I kept these because their form isn't equal. So, I wouldn't get a fair price anyway. Don't worry, the quality doesn't lessen because of their form, it's just not that pretty."

Charlie said to put her at ease. Rose examined the scales again and she saw indeed that they had different forms and sizes. Her mind was wandering, thinking about the potions she could make with this. She would have to ask Snape…

But when she thought of him she still felt a stab anger, for being so stubborn and determined to hate Sirius.

Mrs. Wealsey coughed.

"This is from me, Arthur, the twins, Percy and Ginny. Arthur already left for work, but since you already got everybody else's present…"

She put a very large box on the table.

Rose's eyes widened at the size of it.

"Mrs. Weasley…"

"It's nothing much dear, open it."

Rose undid the wrapping and opened the box. It was filled with old and worn books. She picked one up curiously. 'The tales of beetle the bard'

"These are all childhood books wizards and witches usually grow up with."

Hermione's interest got piqued as well and she examined the books as well.

"They were all ours." Ginny explained.

"I know we didn't spend any money…" Mrs. Weasley said, hesitantly.

Rose looked at the books again and her heart filled with love for this family. They give her all their childhood books. Books Rose never got the chance to grow up with.

"I love it, them." Rose exclaimed happily, she walked up to Mrs. Weasley and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you so much." She hugged Ginny, Percy and the twins as well.

For the first time in her life, Rose felt like this really was her birthday.

Rose felt a smile creep on her face and felt utterly happy when her family smiled back at her.

A week after her birthday everyone was sitting at the dinner table, eating and enjoying themselves.

Her birthday dinner had been amazing, Mrs. Weasley had made a giant birthday cake and they had laughed the whole evening long.

This was much as that night with the exception that Cedric had gone home.

Rose absentmindedly rubbed the ring she had on her middle finger.

This summer had truly been amazing so far and it wasn't over yet. She was looking forward for the Quidditch world cup tomorrow.

Everybody was chattering happily.

"I'm so jealous of your ring, Rose. You have the best boyfriend ever." Ginny sighed.

"Don't I know it." Rose chuckled.

"I'm happy that it all worked out for you." Hermione said. "Feelings shouldn't stay bottled up."

"I'm so glad I talked to you about it."

"What are friends for?" Hermione laughed.

"I'm so hyped for tomorrow." Ron said, clearly wanting to change the subject.

"Me too." Rose said.

"It'll be so cool to see professionals at work. I'm sure it'll be super impressive."

Rose smiled and agreed. She hadn't told him about the memory Cedric had given her.

And she felt she really didn't have to. It was their little secret.

She was eyeing the twins with a sliver of a grin on her face, trying very much not to make it break out into a full blown grin.

Hermione caught her eye and looked at them as well.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh nothing." Rose said innocently, her eye on the boys. They each grabbed a blue cupcake and bit happily in them, eating them without a worry on their minds.

Rose's grin broke completely through and it looked devious.

She winked at Hermione and rose from her seat, approaching the boys.

Rose threw an arm around each twin and pulled them closer.

"My favorite twins, in the whole wide world." Rose said, sugar dripping of her voice. The twins looked at her with surprise on their faces.

Rose's evil grin became wider.

"You just 'had' to take the blue cupcakes didn't you… I knew you would though, especially after Ginny told you Percy wanted to eat them."

Ginny passed by at that moment and gave Rose a high five.

Worry suddenly edged across the twins faces.

Charlie looked at the display with a wide grin.

"What did you do to the cupcakes, Rose?" He asked.

"Good you asked Charlie! See, my favorite twin forgot I didn't have my payback yet for their little stunt with my family. So, I decided to cash in today. See boys, you should really start locking your room, or at least hide your stuff when your big brothers use it. I found some really interesting stuff and decided to do a little experiment of my own. What do you think will happen to you if I ground down one of each candy you created and put it in a cupcake?"

Both twins jumped up, panic clearly on their faces now.

"Are you crazy!" They shouted mouth wide open, and in that moment the whole table erupted with laughter.

Rose burst out in laughter as well, tears stinging her eyes. Even Hermione was laughing.

"What's wrong with you people! This is really dangerous!" Fred exclaimed.

"We could die!" George exclaimed.

But nobody could bring out a word between their laughs.

Because Rose did go to their room, but she wasn't so stupid to begin mixing half tested stuff. What she did find however was non erasable blue ink.

Which made their gums, tongue and teeth a dark blue color, like they had drunk an ink bottle.

The moment they had opened their mouths everybody had a great view of the results.

Rose took in her handy work and erupted in laughter again.

"I… I… don't think… you're… in danger... of that… boys." Mr. Weasley had to choke out between laughs.

Rose handed them a mirror, tears streaking her face.

The twins pressed their faces together to look in the mirror.

Shock became clear on their faces when they examined their mouths.

"Did you really think I was that stupid?" Rose chuckled.

"Does this come off?" The asked in unison.

"You tell me, I got it from your room."

Their eyes widened in horror.

"We haven't developed a solution that gets rid of this yet!" they said in unison again.

The whole table erupted in laughs again, even louder now.

"Boy's, I think she just outplayed you." Bill said with a wide grin.

The twins started laughing as well and bowed for Rose.

"Well played." Fred said.

When they straightened however both twins sported equal evil grins.

Oh oh.

Rose quickly danced away from them.

The twins started chasing her and another laugh bubbled up from her throat.

"Come here you!"

Rose had to dodge them while she got chased through the house and the garden.

Everyone looked on laughing, helping Rose out by blocking their paths from time to time.

When the three of them got exhausted, they finally grabbed her.

They pulled her close and gave her two very wet kisses on her cheeks.

And now Rose had a blue kiss on each cheek.

Which erupted another round of laughter.

The twin were about to give her another kiss when Mrs. Weasley rose from her chair with a wide smile.

"That's enough. It's time for bed. You all need to get up at the crack of dawn for the game."

The girls were still giggling when they entered Ginny's room.

"How are you going to explain those kisses to Cedric?" Ginny asked.

"I think they'll be in for another surprise tomorrow." Rose chuckled while grabbing a washing cloth from the bathroom and washing their kisses clean off.

"How?" Hermione asked stunned.

"I'm not stupid, I knew they were going to try to get back at me. So I covered my skin with a thick cream."

Both girls stared at her in awe.

"Rose, you're a genius!" Ginny exclaimed.

Rose was in a black pit of unconsciousness when Mrs. Weasley shook her shoulder. It's tendrils didn't want to let Rose go and it took all her willpower to open her eyes. Which happened with immense difficulty, it was like her eyes were glued shut.

"Rose honey, you need to wake up."

"Wha…"

Mrs. Weasley chuckled softly.

"The quidditch world cup my dear."

Suddenly a jolt went to Rose and she sat up straight. Mrs. Weasley had moved on to Ginny and Hermione. Ginny whined when Mrs. Weasley woke her and Hermione just yawned.

Mrs. Weasley left them so they could get dressed and they did so in silence. Being too exhausted to speak.

Finally they went downstairs and found Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen preparing some breakfast.

The twins, Ron and Mr. Weasley were already sitting at the kitchen table.

They were doublechecking the tickets.

When Rose entered the room Mr. Weasley spread his arms and looked at Rose and Hermione.

"So… do I look like a muggle? We're not supposed to wear robes to the game." Mr. Weasley looked a bit worried that he hadn't got it right.

He was wearing a golfing sweater and some jeans.

Rose smiled.

"You look like a typical Muggle." Rose said with a smile.

"Yes." Hermione confirmed.

"Excellent." Mr. Weasley said happily.

"When are Bill, Charlie and Peeeercy coming down?" George asked while stifling a yawn, his mouth still very blue.

His hair was messy and his eyes were watery. Rose though he looked adorable when tired.

"They're apparating, so they can sleep longer." Mrs. Weasley said.

"What! Why can't we apparate?" Fred asked.

"Because you haven't passed your test yet." Mrs. Weasley answered.

"There's a test you have to pass for apparating?" Rose asked curiously.

"Of course, apparating can be dangerous if it doesn't happen the correct way. Just last week some colleagues had to fine two wizards who had apparated without a license. They had splinched themselves poor bastards."

Everyone pulled a painful face except Hermione and Rose.

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"When apparating isn't done correctly it's possible you leave parts of yourself behind. So your stuck on you location, you can't go either way. Lots of paperwork that caused, with the Muggles passing by and finding the parts they had left behind."

Rose could see it clearly in her head now, walking down a street, finding an arm a leg and a nose. She shuddered.

"Where they alright?"

"Yes, we fixed them right up. But they got a heavy fine and I don't think they'll try it again any time soon. A lot of wizards don't even bother with it and prefer brooms. It's slower but a lot safer."

Rose nodded and took some toast with jam.

"But Bill, Charlie and Percy can all do it?" Hermione asked.

Fred chuckled.

"Well yes, but Charlie had to try the test twice. The first time he was five miles of point and her appeared on top of an old lady." A chuckle rippled through the room.

"Well he passed the second time." Mrs. Weasley said.

"And Perce passed two weeks ago, he keeps apparating downstairs just to show off." George grumbled.

"Hey!" Fred suddenly exclaimed while staring at Rose. "How come our kisses aren't on you cheeks anymore? Our mouths are still very blue!"

Rose grinned widely. "I have my ways."

Ginny let out a loud yawn.

"Why did you wake us so early?" Ginny asked.

"He have a bit of a walk." Mr. Weasley said.

"We're walking to the world cup?" Rose asked surprised.

"Oh no, that's too far away. No we just have for a bit. There are meeting point, it's a bit difficult to get so many wizards to the same spot without alerting the Muggles…"

"George!" Mrs. Weasley snapped, which made everyone jump.

"What?" He tried to sound innocent, he really did, too bad nobody bought it.

"What do you have in your pocket?"

"Nothing!" Yep, there was definitively something in there.

"Don't lie to me!" Mrs. Weasley suddenly whipped out her wand, pointed it at George and chanted.

"Accio!"

Suddenly there were small brightcolored objects flying out of Georges pockets. He tried to stop the but to no avail, they all landed in Mrs. Weasley's hand.

"I told you to throw them out!" Mrs. Weasley shouted holding up the objects. Rose could see the were the same toffees as they had dropped for her cousin, although there were other colors mixed through them.

"Empty your pockets, right now! The both of you!"

What followed was a scene that made Rose heart clench.

The twins had tried to hide a lot of them in the most absurd places, just to be able to get them out of the house.

The toffee flew out of ridiculous places al because Mrs. Weasley kept chanting "accio" shrilly, fury evident in her voice. The flew out of the lining of their jackets, the folds from their rolled up jeans, and even, ahem… their underpants.

"Stop it! We spent six month working on those!" Fred exclaimed.

"Oh very good, those are six month you could have been studying! No wonder you didn't get a lot of O.W.L.s!"

Another reprimand took place. Mrs. Weasley looking furious as she was shouting at them and the twins looking just as furious with a tad of powerless desperation.

Rose felt for them. It was something they had created all on their own, something they were very proud of and Mrs. Weasley threw it into a trash bin before their noses.

It hadn't been her business to begin with, Rose knew that. But she was still a bit hurt that Mrs. Weasley had ignored what she had told her.

There were other ways to go about it.

That's why when Mrs. Weasley was still glowering when she kissed Mr. Weasley goodbye and The twins just put on their backpack and left the house without saying a word to her, Rose lingered in the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley was busy boring holes in their back as they walked away, and the kitchen was empty safe for Rose. She glanced around quickly and let her magic flow from her.

Half of the candy's flew back to her into her backpack.

She closed it quickly and left the kitchen as well.

"Enjoy yourselves, and behave yourselves." Mrs. Weasley called after the twins but they completely ignored her.

Rose quickly hid what she had done and walked towards the front door.

"Have a lovely time, Rose."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." Rose said and she quickly turned to hide her burning cheeks. She felt like she was doing something behind the back of her mother but she felt sorry for the twins.

"Bill, Charlie and Percy will arrive around midday." Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley as the group started walking across the dark yard.

The chill bit in Rose's skin and the colors slowly started to turn to gray as daybreak neared.

Mr. Weasley was throwing looks at the twins, who after a while of walking started to lag behind, defeated looks on their faces.

It wasn't the best time yet to approach them so Rose tried to catch up with Mr. Weasley. She had been thinking about what he said just before George was found out by his mom.

"So, how do you get all the wizards together without the Muggles noticing?" She asked him.

"That has been the biggest organizational problem. We just don't have a magical place that is big enough to assemble everyone together. Just imagine packing everyone together in Diagon Alley or the Kings Cross Station. So we searched for a nice and empty valley and had to enchant it with as much Muggle repelling wards as possible. Of course we needed a plan to handle all the arrivals as well. We couldn't allow everyone arriving at the same time, that would draw attention. So we linked the different ways of transport and arrival times to their tickets. If you don't arrive in the way or time your ticket allows you to, you're banned from the game. One of the main ways of transport are portkey's. It's an object that apparates everyone touching it to a predefined place at a predefined time. That's where we're going, to the portkey of this area."

"What kind of object can it be?" Rose asked curiously.

"Mostly trash honestly. Something that Muggles aren't likely to pick up."

They fell into a silence after that. The sky was slowly clearing while they silently continued. When Hermione started a conversation with Mr. Weasley, Rose started to slow her steps. Rose fell back until she got to the twins who were walking very slow with doom written all over their faces.

"Hey, guys."

"Hi." They said in a kind of depressed voice.

"Sucks that your mom found the candy." Rose said lightly while slowing down even more so she could open Fred's backpack.

"I'm sorry she threw them away." She continued in a relaxed tone.

The twins turned their heads to see what she was doing. Rose glanced at the rest walking ahead. They weren't looking at them. She pulled out one candy from her own backpack to show them what she was doing.

Both faces lit up immediately, identical wide grins on their faces. Rose winked and started shoving the candy in Fred's backpack.

"Yeah, total waste that was." Fred said, a little happier than before.

"All our hard work in the trash." George continued.

When she was done, she zipped Fred's shut and started walking next to them.

"You are amazing." Fred whispered in gratitude.

"I could kiss you right now." George said playfully. Did Fred just roll his eyes?

"It's nothing. You guys still have to show me all your stuff." Rose said.

"Totally." Fred answered.

Rose suddenly realized she hadn't spent a lot of time with the twins lately, a guilty knot formed in her stomach.

"Hey guys, I know we haven't hung out a lot lately…" Rose began.

"Where have you been the last couple of weeks? You've been living with us." Fred said while laughing.

"I know, I mean like we did in school… I'm sorry…"

"It's fine Rose, we have plenty of time to hang out together. When we get back…" George said eagerly before Fred interrupted him.

"Besides, you have a boyfriend now, we get it. You just made up for it by giving us the candy back." Fred said.

George fell silent at that.

"Right." Rose said confused by the looks they were throwing at each other.

The twins are crazy, Rose thought to herself.

The sky lightened very slowly as they made their way through the village, its inky blackness diluting to deepest blue. Rose's hands and feet were freezing.

Mr. Weasley check the time regularly, not wanting to miss the predefined time for the portkey.

They started climbing a hill and Rose could feel her muscles protest at the effort it took.

She wasn't the only one though. The air filled with pants and groans.

When Rose's chest started to constrict her feet finally touch lever ground. She had to stop for a second to catch her breath.

Again she wasn't the only one. Everybody took a breather.

After a few minutes Mr. Weasley spoke up.

"Come on everyone we need to search of the portkey, it won't be big and will probably look like trash."

Everyone started looking around, looking for well… trash.

"Arthur! We have the portkey!"

Rose looked up and saw Cedric and his father come into view and she suddenly forgot all about the walk.

"Amos!" Mrs. Weasley greeting.

"Had a long walk?" Cedric's father asked.

"It was fine. You?"

"We had to get up at two, that stinged but we wouldn't miss the world cup for the world." Cedric's father laughed.

Amos Diggory peered good-naturedly around at the three Weasley boys, Rose, Hermione, and Ginny. "You seem to have a heavier load."

"It's no trouble at all." Mr. Weasley laughed. "Must be nearly time." Mr. Weasley continued, pulling out his watch again.

"Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"

"No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets." said Mr. Diggory. "There aren't any more of us in this area, are there?"

"Not that I know of." said Mr. Weasley. "Yes, it's a minute off… We'd better get ready..." He looked around at Rose and Hermione.

"Come on guy's, it's time. Everybody, put a finger on the portkey please."

Everybody pressed together to touch the old boot in Mr. Diggory's hand.

Cedric was pressed against Rose from shoulder to knee and it made Rose's heart speed up. His body heat chased away the cold morning chill and Rose couldn't help but smile at him. Cedric smiled back just as wide.

An silence fell over them as they stood there awkwardly, waiting, while holding an old boot.

Rose had to suppress a laugh when she though how this scenario would look to a Muggle.

"Here we go…" Mr. Weasley muttered.

"Three… two… one."

When 'one' was uttered Rose felt a great yank from behind her bellybutton and the ground beneath her feet disappeared. They were being yanked forward in a tornado of wind and color, it seemed as if her hand was superglued to the boot. She would be able to yank it loose even if she tried.

And suddenly her feet slammed back on the ground? Hermione bumped into her as she fell.

She could feel how she lost her balance as well but a strong arm braced her so she would stay upright.

The Portkey hit the ground near with a heavy thud.

Rose looked around.

Mr. Weasley, Mr. Diggory, Cedric and she were still standing, though looking very windswept, everybody else was on the ground. The only reason Rose was still standing was because Cedric had thrown an arm around her, stabilizing her. She shot him a thankful smile and he winked.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill." said a voice.

* * *

To all my wonderful AO3 readers who have followed this story here: you will notice I added some fun stuff to this chapter ;)

I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

XXX D.


	7. Chapter 7: Bagman & Crouch

Chapter Seven

BAGMAN AND CROUCH

The group on the ground groaned while they were trying to get up. Which was a feat since their limbs were entangled. They had arrived on some sort of valley.

Two grumpy looking wizards were looking at them while holding a large roll of parchment.

They had dressed themselves as Muggles as well. Although you could clearly see they weren't used at doing so.

"Good morning, Basil." Mr. Weasley said while handing over the portkey.

The man named Basil threw it in a box that was filled with trash. Like an old newspaper, empty drink cans and a deflated football.

"Morning Arthur. You're lucky you're not working… Wait I'll look for your spot… Weasley… Weasley…" Basil search the parchment.

"Walk about a fourth of a mile that way, the first field you bump into is yours. Ask for mister Roberts. Diggory… yours is the second field. You have to ask for Mr. Payne."

"Thank you." Mr. Weasley said and the group started off in the right direction.

After walking for a bout ten minutes hundreds and hundreds of tent rose on the horizon. It took Rose's breath away. The field was bordered with a dark looking forest. They came across a cottage, probably the keepers house.

"Arthur, we're in a different field, so we have to keep going." Mr Diggory said.

Cedric and Rose looked at each other with sad faces. Mr. Diggory glanced their way and a smile crept up his face.

"Anyhow maybe we'll pass by tonight after the game."

Mr. Weasley smiled as well.

"See you tonight?" Cedric asked.

"I hope so." Rose smiled.

They said good-bye to the Diggorys and approached the cottage door.

There was someone standing in the doorway and just one glance at him told Rose he was a Muggle.

When he heard us approaching he turned to look at them.

"Good morning." Mr. Weasley said cheerily.

"Morning." The Muggle responded.

"Are you Mr. Roberts."

"Yes, I am. What's your name?" The Muggle asked while grabbing a list that was attached to the door.

"The name's Weasley, two tents."

"Your spot is by the woods. Just one night, correct?"

"Exactly."

"Will you be paying now?" Mr. Roberts asked.

"Euhm… yeah…" He shot Rose a panicked glance and she understood the message immediately. She and Mr. Weasley backed away a few steps.

"You have to help me, Rose. I don't understand Muggle money." Mr. Weasley muttered.

Rose smiled at him while she scanned the notes he just took out of his pocket.

"This is a… what is it?"

"You can recognize it by the number in the corner." Rose said.

"Ah… it's a ten then?"

"Correct."

"Why they use bits of paper still baffles me…" Mr. Weasley said. Rose had to chuckle at that.

"Which country are you from?" Mr. Robert asked.

"Here, why?" Mr. Weasley answered puzzled.

"I've seen a lot of people having trouble with money today. There was even one guy that tried to pay my in gold goins…"

"How peculiar…" Mr. Weasley answered, panic in his eyes.

"My father just forgot his glasses at home. He can't see a thing without them, that's all." Rose said smiling, and using her Weasley similar red hair as an excuse. Mr. Weasley smiled when he heard it.

Mr. Roberts seemed relieved with that explanation and started rummaging around in a tin for some change.

"I've never had this many people before." He glanced at all the tents. "All these pre-bookings… I've never had any before, people usually turn up when they feel like it."

"Oh really?." Mr. Weasley said. Rose could hear in his tone of voice that he really wasn't comfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.

"Yes, and they're all foreigners, and not just that, they're all weird. The way they dress… it's absurd sometimes."

"R…Really…" Mr. Weasley looked at his clothes with a panicked look. Rose shot him a reassuring look. He looked very normal for Muggle standards.

"And it seems everyone knows everyone, like it's a party or something."

"Maybe it's just an international convention. You know how those can be." Rose tried to appease the muggle.

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that…" Mr. Roberts said thoughtful. "Makes a lot of sense though…"

Suddenly another wizard apparated right next to Mr. Roberts. Said wizard immediately pointed his wand at the Muggle.

"Obliviate." He snapped.

Immediately Mr. Roberts appeared to look like he was in a daze for a few seconds. Like he wans't even there anymore.

Rose immediately knew that his memory was being altered.

"There you go." Mr. Roberts said without emotion. He gave Mr. Weasley a map and his change.

"Thank you." Mr. Weasley answered with a empathic face.

The wizard that had altered Mr. Roberts memory walked with them to the gate. The man looked simply exhausted, under his eyes he had dark shadow and a stubble was forming on his chin.

When they were out of earshot of Mr. Roberts the man spoke up.

"Oh my. I've been altering his memories at least ten times each day. People really don't know how to act around a muggle. Not that Bagman makes it a lot easier. No he's speaks aloud about Quidditch, brooms, snitches and quaffles all day long, not caring who hears. Bloody hell I long until tomorrow, when all of this will be over. Anyway, enjoy the game Arthur."

The man disapparated.

"Isn't Bagman the head of International Games and Sports?" Ginny asked with surprise. "Shouldn't he set an example?"

"Yeah." Mr. Weasley said smiling. "He's always been a bit enthusiastic, and not really watchful for the rules. But you'll never find someone more enthusiastic about sports. He was a professional Quidditch player himself you know.

As they kept walking through the tents, Rose noticed that the further away they got from the cottage with Mr. Roberts the more extravagant the tents got.

In the beginning the tents look rather simple and you could clearly see the wizards were trying to make it look like normal tents but somehow, somewhere along the line they went horribly wrong.

By putting chimney's in, or adding floors, or weather vanes.

But the further they got the less Rose was surprised that Mr. Roberts was getting suspicious.

Some tents were floating, others looked like a flat. There was even on that looked like a palace with peacock placed in front.

"By this rate, they'd better lock Mr. Roberts up. None of these even look remotely like a normal tent." Rose muttered to Hermione. Hermione had to chuckle and nod in agreement.

"This is us!" Mr. Weasley said.

They had arrived at plot that had a sign with 'Weezly' written on it.

"This spot is the best! We're right at the woods and the Quidditch field is just on the other side." Mr. Weasley said happily.

"Now, he have to put these together without magic or anything. Should be a piece of cake, Muggles do it all the time. Rose, Hermione how do you think we should start?"

That simple question resulted into the Weasleys sitting at the edge of the spot and Rose and Hermione putting the tent together.

They struggled a lot, and each time Mr. Weasley tried to help, something went awry and they had to redo a couple of steps.

"Ough…" Rose groaned when the top bar was leaning on her arms.

"George, get over here!" Rose groaned, feeling she didn't have a good grip. She didn't want to let it drop and start over again and she had caught George looking at her.

"Sure."

George got to his feet and walked over to Rose.

"Can… you… please…" Rose huffed. George examined the situation, he couldn't reach easily because the whole tent was in the way in front of Rose.

He stood behind her and reached around her to lift the bar. His chest pressed against Rose's back and she felt a blush rise.

"Hermione, is this better?"

"Yep now I can see… Don't move!" She snapped when Rose was trying to sidestep out of Georges proximity.

"O-okay." Rose said breathless.

Suddenly Hermione yanked at something which pulled George even closer. Now his chest was touching her back, his arms were pressing hers and his face was right next to her, partly in her hair. His chin rested on her shoulder and she could feel his breath in her neck.

This really got her flustered.

Too much touching in a really… euhm weird sort of way.

Her heart almost jumped out of her chest and she could feel George's as well on her back.

What was this… why did she get so flustered?

Because nobody has gotten this close to her except Cedric. That's why.

George shifted and breathed in. This gave Rose goosebumps and she was quickly wishing to escape this awkward position.

"Okay, I think…" Hermione said.

"Oomph." George grunted and before Rose could register what had happened they tumbled to the ground. Rose fell flat on her stomach and George tumbled on top of her. With the tent draped over them.

"Aw!" Rose recoiled at the sudden weight on her and tried to roll away, only to get stuck under George face up.

Their faces were mere inches away from each other and George had a funny look in his eyes.

"George…" Rose muttered and for the briefest second, Rose could swear his face inched even closer.

Then, suddenly, the tent got lifted off them by Fred and George backed away.

Fred grabbed George by the arm and pulled him off Rose.

"Rose are you okay?" Fred asked worried. He had a sort of angry look in his face.

"I-I'm fine." It wasn't really convincing. Rose was completely red and wide eyed.

"I'm so sorry Rose. Hermione yanked at something and I couldn't keep my balance anymore." George said. "Did I hurt you?"

He lunched forward and helped Rose up. Rose examined his face, but the funny look was gone and she only saw concern and guilt.

"No… no I'm fine." Rose answered.

"I'm sorry Rose. I thought I had it." Hermione said.

"It's okay. George keep the bar up again, I'll help Hermione."

George quickly grabbed the bar and held it up. He was blushing.

The knot in Rose's stomach that had been there since George started acting strange, tightened and Rose felt like she was missing something essential.

They quickly got to work again. This time Fred was helping as well. Both twins obediently followed the instructions Rose and Hermione gave them and the work went a lot quicker.

When they were done, they took a step back and looked at their finished work.

Two shabby looking two-man tents stood in their spot and Rose looked around the group.

That wasn't going to be enough. This afternoon when the final Weasley brothers arrived the would be a party of ten. No way everyone fit in there.

Hermione seemed to realize the same thing and looked at Rose with surprise.

"Let's have a look inside shall we." Mr. Weasley entered the tent. So did the twins, Ron and Ginny.

"What the…" Rose whispered.

Five people had just entered a two-man tent and there were no limbs pressing up against the canvas.

"Are we missing something?" Hermione said.

Rose shrugged, baffled. They had been on the inside while setting it up, there was nothing special to note. Rose followed the rest and her jaw dropped open when she entered.

She had just walked into a three room flat. Hermione had the same look on her face when she entered.

"But how… We have seen the inside, it wasn't this." Rose exclaimed.

The Weasley's turned and looked at their amazed faces.

"Magic!" Fred and George exclaimed.

"Blimey, sometimes I forget you girls grew up with Muggles." Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "There's an enchantment on the tent, it only activates once you have completely finished setting it up." Mr. Weasley explained.

"Oh."

"Let's check the girls' tent."

The tent was a bit smaller still bigger than what it looked like outside.

"I'll never tire of magic." Rose whispered.

"Sometimes I wonder what that feels like." George said, he was standing next to Rose. She shot him a quizzical look.

"I've often seen your face turn into pure amazement at something… magical. Something that is just normal to us, like the sky is to everyone. You just light up in pure amazement and wonder, like I don't know… getting your first ride on a broom or something. I find myself wanting to have that same surprise now and then…" George explained.

"I'll take you to Muggle London once, show you our technology." Rose bumped him.

"Although I'd like that very much, it's not really what I meant. Sure I want to feel that surprise, but I kinda want to invoke it in others as well. It's so much fun to watch you… you and Hermione get that look on your faces."

Rose smiled up at him and leaned closer, lowering her voice.

"That's why you'd be awesome at that shop of yours."

George gave her a bright smile back.

"Right, we'll need some water to put on a kettle." Mr. Weasley announced.

"There's a tap not too far from here." Ron said, examining the map Mr. Roberts gave them.

"Excellent, you Rose and Hermione can get some water and the rest of us can search some wood to build a fire."

"But why?" Ron asked. "We have an oven."

"As little magic as possible Ron! Muggles built fires outside the tent. I've seen them do it."

Ron groaned in response.

Rose chuckled and looked up. George was still looking at her with a smile.

"Come one brother, you heard dad! We searching for some wood." Fred yanked George outside.

"Let's go guy's." Rose told Ron and Hermione.

The sun was completely up now and shining on their backs while making a way through all the tents.

Other campers where waking up now and Rose saw Wizards and Witches of every origin.

More than once a Ministry official had to rush by them towards clear depictions of magic to intervene.

"Oh wow." Hermione said.

"Yup, we've definitively entered Irish territory." Rose said.

They had just entered a sea of green. Every tent was decorated in green shamrocks, so it looked like a really bumpy and grassy landscape.

"Rose! Ron! Hermione!" a voice cut through the clearing.

It was Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and an elderly woman that looked like Seamus. Probably his mother.

"What do you think of the decorations?" Seamus asked.

"Very green." Rose nodded. Dean and Seamus laughed.

"The ministry is not too happy about it." Seamus continued.

"Why would they? We're just showing off our colors." Seamus' mom said. "You should see what the Bulgarians did. You're here for Ireland I hope?" There was a sudden sharpness to her voice.

"Of course." Rose answered.

When they continued on their way Ron muttered.

"Djeez, like we'de ever dare to say something else surround by all that green."

Rose had to laugh.

"I wonder what she meant about the Bulgarians." Hermione said.

"Well… let's take a look." Rose suggested.

When they neared the Bulgarian tents they noticed they weren't covered in plant life but with faces.

And every face was the same, it was moving but only slightly, for the Muggles Rose concluded.

"Krum." Ron said.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Krum! Viktor Krum, he's the Bulgarian seeker."

"He looks kind of grumpy." Hermione said.

"'Kind of Grumpy'? He's the best seeker in this generation, and really young too. He must be around 18 or something." Ron said in frustration.

"Okay, that's amazing and all. But he does look kind off grumpy." Rose said.

Ron let out a frustrated groan and stomped on.

Hermione and Rose had to stifle a laugh.

They finally arrived at the tap. They took the necessary water and started their way back.

Which went a lot slower because of the added weight.

On the way back they saw a few more familiar faces. One of them was Oliver Wood, their former Quidditch captain.

He dragged Rose all the way over to his tent to introduce her to his parents.

They were a little starstruck and both of them did the now familiar eye flick to her scar.

When they said goodbye, Oliver happily told her he signed a contract in a professional Quidditch team. Rose couldn't be happier for him.

After that they bumped into Erne Macmillan and after that they saw Cho Chang.

Rose waved at her and Cho gave a little wave back.

Finally they arrived back at their tents.

"What took so long?" George asked.

"We bumped into some people from school." Ron explained.

"Did you get a fire started yet?" Rose asked.

"No, dad's well… matches aren't his thing." Fred said.

Rose looked to were Fred was looking and saw Mr. Weasley try one match after the other, already surrounded with matched from failed attempts.

"I'll help you Mister Weasley." Hermione said.

Rose sat down between Fred and George to watch the spectacle of Hermione trying to teach Mr. Weasley how to light a match.

When Hermione succeeded in lighting a fire, they lazily sat around waiting for the fire to be hot enough to cook something.

Fred poked Rose and she poked him back smiling.

One after the other Ministry colleague popped up occasionally to talk to Mr. Weasley.

Mr. Weasley introduced everyone that passed by but Rose could remember a single one.

She was lazily laying back in the grass enjoying the sun and she doubted she'd ever meet them again.

When the fire was finally ready to cook and they started on some eggs and sausages, Bill, Charlie and Percy arrived.

"Ah, lunch is ready." Percy happily exclaimed.

"Hey, that's our lunch! You lazy ass didn't do a thing to earn it." Fred exclaimed while throwing a pebble to Percy.

"Hey! Too bad you can't apparate, then you would have arrived with us." Percy said haughtily.

George threw another pebble toward Percy.

"Our food!"

Rose had to giggle at their antics, each time Percy tried to take some food the twin would throw pebbles at him.

"Cut it out!"

"Boys…" Mr. Weasley said trying to calm things down.

"Fine but the workers get to pick first!" Fred said.

"That seems fair." Mr. Weasley laughed.

The twin charged forward and took all the sausages, since they had seen Percy had wanted to take one.

"Hey! I wanted one!" Percy said.

"Too bad, should have worked for it." George threw back.

"Guys, I wanted one too." Rose said darkly when she was forced to take an egg.

"Take one of mine." George said and he gave one of his.

"Why does she get one!"

"Because she worked for it! And we actually like her." George threw back.

"Boys! Enough! You can't take all the sausages." Mr. Weasley snapped.

"Fine." Fred said. And he went around the campsite to give out sausages with his brother. Giving to everyone… but Percy of course.

"You two…!" Percy gritted in frustration.

Before things could escalate however, Mr. Weasley jumped up and started signaling to someone.

"Ludo Bagman!"

A smiling man with a boyish face came walking towards them. He was wearing black and yellow quidditch robes with a giant wasp across the chest, not exactly incognito.

"Arthur!" The man responded happily.

When Bagman reached the campfire he shook hands with Mr. Weasley.

"Perfect day isn't it? Nice weather, barely a hiccup in the organization. Just perfect!"

Percy hurried forward to give the man a hand as well.

"This is my son, Percy. He just got a job at the Ministry." Mr. Weasley introduced Percy and them turned around to the rest of the group.

"These are my other sons, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie and Ronald and My daughter Ginny. And then we have Ron's friends, Hermione Granger and Rose Potter."

Bagman's eyes widened at the mention at Rose's name, with the familiar flicker to her scar.

"You guy's, this is Ludo Bagman. He's the one that got us such good tickets."

"It was my pleasure Arthur." Bagman waved the comment away.

"So Arthur, want to place a bet on the outcome?" Bagman said enthusiastically while touching a pouch that sounded like it had a lot of money in it.

"Hmm… okay. A galleon for Ireland to win." Mr. Weasley said taking out the money.

Bagman looked a tad disappointed about the amount but recovered quickly.

"Anyone else?"

"That's not such a good idea, Ludo. They're a bit young…"

"We bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles and three Knuts that Ireland wins but Bulgaria gets the snitch!" Fred exclaimed while jumping up with George and getting their money out.

"Oh and we'll add a fake wand."

"Don't be stupid, Mr. Bagman isn't interested in rubbish like that…" Percy said but he quickly swallowed his words when Bagman laughed loudly when he took the wand and it turned into a rubber chicken.

"Excellent! I'd pay 5 Galleons for that!"

Percy's mouth became a thin line from sheer disapproval.

"Hold on a minute!" Mr. Weasley said. "That's all your money, I don't want you… your mother…"

"Oh, Arthur, they're old enough. Ireland wins but Bulgaria gets the snitch, not a chance boy's, there's excellent odds on that.

Mr. Weasley looked deflated as Bagman took the twins money and wrote the bet down in his ledger.

The twins took the slip happily and sat back down on either side of Rose.

"Is that really all you money?"

"Every single knut." Fred said cheerily.

"Are you sure…"

"It's fine Rose. Beside we can sell the candy you gave back to us to earn some of it back." George said in a low voice.

"Okay then…" Rose still had her doubts, but she wasn't their mother. It's their decision.

When Rose refocused on Bagman he had taken a seat on the grass by the fire and they were talking about the language knowledge of Barty Crouch.

"Have you found Bertha Jorkins yet?" Mr Weasley asked.

When Mr. Weasley dropped the name, Rose got a pit in her stomach. She frowned, why was she suddenly filled with a feeling of dread?

"Nothing yet. Poor Bertha, so confused these last years… I'm telling you, she can walk into the office anytime, still thinking we're June or something."

"Shouldn't someone start looking for her?"

"That's what Crouch keep telling me. Oh… there he is now! Barty!"

Another man apparated at their campfire.

He couldn't be more the opposite of Bagman. His outfit was completely Muggle from head to toe. He looked like a fancy banker in his outfit. Even uncle Vernon would approve, Rose realized.

"Sit down for a bit, Barty." Bagman said with a wide smile.

"No thank you." Rose could hear the impatience in his voice. He sounded like Hermione when Ron was slacking his homework again.

"I've been looking all over for you. The Bulgarians want additional seats in the topbox."

"Oh that's what they want. I didn't understand a thing when they approached me earlier." Bagman said.

"Mr. Crouch! Would you like a cup of tea?" Percy said hurriedly while giving some sort of bow which was over the top.

"Yes… thank you, Weatherby."

Rose snorted and Fred and George made a strangled noise.

Percy, who was getting a fiery blush, ignored them by setting the tea for Mr. Crouch.

"Arthur, I'm glad I bump into you. Ali Bashir seems very displeased about your embargo on flying carpets." Mr Chrouch said when his eye fell on Mr. Weasley.

Mr Weasley sighed.

"I've told him a hundred times, Carpets are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects, he'll never listen."

"He's desperate to start selling here." Mr. Crouch said while accepting the cup of tea from Percy.

Bagman laughed.

"They'll never replace brooms here."

"He thinks there's a market for a family vehicle."

"It's been hectic with the world cup hasn't it." Mr. Weasley said. "You'll probably be glad it's over."

"Ha! I've never had as much fun. But we've got something to look forward to after this, plenty to do." Bagman said.

Mr. Crouch made a disapproving look.

"We're not allowed to talk about this. It's not conclusive…"

"Yes it is, they have signed haven't they? These kids'll know soon enough, it's happening in Hogwarts after all…"

"Barty! We should go, solve this business with the Bulgarians." Mr. Crouch snapped, cutting off Bagman. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby."

Mr. Crouch gave his untouched cup back to Percy and looked pointedly at Bagman, urging him to get up.

"See you in the Topbox! I'm commentating!" Bagman said with a wave before they disapparated.

Fred immediately turned on his father after that.

"What's happening in Hogwarts dad?"

"You'll see." Mr. Weasley said with a smile.

"It's confedential information until the Ministry wants to announce it. Mr. Crouch was quite right in stopping Mr. Bagman." Percy said haughtily.

"Oh, shut it, Weatherby." Fred said.

As the time ticked forward, the campsite was bustling more and more with activity and excitement.

More and more magic was evident and the Ministry just couldn't cover it all.

Rose was laying on her back in the grass with the twins.

They were constantly teasing each other by tickling and poking.

"Hey guy's, there are salesmen that set up shop a bit further with souvenirs." Hermione suddenly said.

The three of them jolted up.

They looked at each other with wide grins.

"You thinking what I'm thinking." George said.

"Depends if you're thinking what I'm thinking that your think, then yes I'm thinking what you're thinking." Fred said with a grin.

Rose laughed and pulled them up by their arms.

"We're all thinking the same, let's just do it."

They started walking towards the stands.

"Hey Rose, you coming with us?" Ron called. He stood with Hermione and Ginny.

"I'll catch up, we just have to do something first." Rose called back. Ron made a face and turned away.

"What's his deal?" Fred said.

"He's jealous we're stealing his best friend." George evilly.

"You're not stealing anything. I'm not property, I go where I want and with who I want. Let's go." Rose said.

They wandered along the stands trying to secure a spot where they hoped they would get caught by Mr. Weasley but still visible enough for people to find.

They found a spot under a tree and Rose stood where most people passed to keep an eye out.

"Buy you Ton-Tongue Toffees here!"

"Prank you friends!"

"Amazingly embarrassing picture moments waiting to happen!"

"Laugh you ass off while your friend chokes on his tongue!"

"Teasing moments guaranteed."

Fred and George comically shouted.

Some people looked over but they kept walking.

After about twenty minutes without a customer the twins looked a tad disappointed.

Rose sighed while looking at people stopping at the sale stands and looking over the souvenirs.

"That's it!" Rose said happily, people buy what they can see.

She looked over at the twins, their shouts became less enthusiastic.

Rose strode over.

"Hey, aren't you standing on the look-out?"

"I have to do something first." Rose said and she reached into George's backpack and took out a Ton-Tongue Toffee. Behind her back she undid the wrapper.

"Hey George."

"What?"

"I think you're way hotter than Fred."

George turned red immediately.

"Wha…" The moment he opened his mouth, Rose saw her chance and she quickly stuffed his mouth with the toffee and clasped her hand across his mouth.

"Swallow!"

George fought back just a little but she had completely taken him by surprise, so he did.

"There!"

"What did you do that for?" Fred laughed.

"One, a little extra payback, two, people only buy what they can see." Rose smiled.

"You didn't have to jam it down my throat, we would… ha'… 'one…" George's voice became strangled, his tongue was swelling.

Rose smiled at him sweetly.

"It would have taken forever for you two to decide which one of you would swallow it, because I sure as hell aren't."

"'y…'e..?" George choked.

"What? I can't understand you…" Rose winked at him and turned towards the people passing by. "OH MY GOD! Look at his tongue! IT'S HUGE!" She yelled towards them.

People turned and watched only for their eyes to fall on George. Whose tongue was now hanging out of his mouth and was bright purple. People laughed and came closer.

"You're welcome." Rose said with cheek and she walked back to her spot to be on the look-out.

Within thirty minutes all the candy they had was sold.

People had crowded around them to get a good look at George's tongue and almost everyone laughed at the silliness of it all.

"Wow that got sold so fast." Fred said in amazement.

"How much did you get?"

"Ten Galleons." Fred said with glee.

"Awesome!" Rose high fived them.

"Yeah, geat.." George said, still having a bit of difficulty with speaking.

The swelling of his tongue had gone down but it was still bright purple. Mixed with his otherwise blue mouth, it was funny to see. Rose sniggered.

"Wha'?"

"Nothing." Rose said smiling. "Hey look!"

She pointed at a boy whose tongue was purple and gigantic. His friend was laughing his ass off.

The twins sported two identical grins while looking for Ron.

"There they are!"

When they caught up with Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Ron immediately looked suspicious.

"What did you guys do?"

"Nothing." Rose and Fred said in unison. George just kept his mouth shut. Which was probably the safest thing to do.

They strolled past the vendors.

Ron showed his loot, he had bought a miniature Krum, a shamrock hat and a large green rosette.

Rose eyes fell on something called Omnioculars. The vendor was explaining to the crowd that it showed explanations, you could rewind and slow down.

Ron followed her look and face fell.

"I shouldn't have bought the hat." He said disappointed.

"Three pairs please." Rose said.

"No, no, no." Ron countered while Rose was paying. Ron had always been a bit touchy about the fact that Rose had more money than him.

"Don't worry, you won't get a Christmas present." Rose said.

His face brightened immediately.

"Thank you Rose! I'll get us the programs." Hermione said.

They walked back to the tent.

Everyone was wearing green rosettes and Mr. Weasley had draped the Irish flag around him.

His eyes fell on the twins, who had green rosettes as well.

"How did you get those? I though you bet all you money?" Mr. Weasley said confused.

"I bought it for them, they can give it back when they win the bet." Rose quickly said.

Ron looked at her with surprise.

"No you…"

Rose quickly stomped him on the foot.

Mr. Weasley's eyebrows shot up but before he could comment a loud gong sounded from the woods and green and red brazier ignited. They showed the path to the field.

Mr. Weasley brightened immediately.

"It's time for the game!"

* * *

Again you AO3 readers will notice there are some changes in this one as well :)

I hope you enjoyed!

XXX D.


	8. Chapter 8: Quidditch World Cup

Chapter Eight

THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP

Clutching their purchases, Mr. Weasley in the lead, they all hurried into the wood, following the lantern-lit trail.

They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing.

The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious, Rose couldn't stop grinning. They walked through the woods for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium.

Though Rose could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the field, she could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it.

"Seats a hundred thousand." said Mr. Weasley, spotting the awestruck look on Rose's face. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again . . . bless them." he added fondly, leading the way toward the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards.

"Prime seats!" said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go."

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in rich purple. They clambered upward with the rest of the crowd, which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right.

Mr. Weasley's party kept climbing, and at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts.

About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Rose, filing into the front seats with the Weasleys, looked down upon a scene the likes of which she could never have imagined if she hadn't seen Cedric's memory.

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels around the long oval field. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light, which seemed to come from the stadium itself. The field looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high, right opposite them, almost at Rose's eye level, was a gigantic blackboard.

Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant's hand were scrawling upon the blackboard and then wiping it off again, watching it, Rose saw that it was flashing advertisements across the field.

The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family. Safe, reliable and with Built-in Anti-Burglar Buzzer… Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!... Gladrags Wizardwear: London, Paris, Hogsmeade…

Rose tore her eyes away from the sign and looked over her shoulder to see who else was sharing the box with them.

So far it was empty, except for a tiny creature sitting in the second from last seat at the end of the row behind them. The creature, whose legs were so short they stuck out in front of it on the chair, was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga, and it had its face hidden in its hands. Yet those long, batlike ears were oddly familiar...

"Dobby?" said Rose incredulously. The tiny creature looked up and stretched its fingers, revealing enormous brown eyes and a nose the exact size and shape of a large tomato.

It wasn't Dobby… it was, however, unmistakably a house-elf, as Rose's friend Dobby had been.

Rose had set Dobby free from his old owners, the Malfoy family.

"Did miss just call me Dobby?" squeaked the elf curiously from between its fingers.

Its voice was higher even than Dobby's had been, a teeny, quivering squeak of a voice and Rose suspected… though it was very hard to tell with a house-elf… that this one might just be female.

Ron and Hermione spun around in their seats to look.

Though they had heard a lot about Dobby from Rose, they had never actually met him.

Even Mr. Weasley looked around in interest.

"Sorry." Rose told the elf. "I just thought you were someone I knew."

"But I knows Dobby too, miss!" squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit.

"My name is Winky, miss… and you, miss…"

Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Rose's scar.

"You is surely Rose Potter!"

"Yeah, I am." said Rose. "But Dobby talks of you all the time, miss!" she said, lowering her hands very slightly and looking awestruck.

"How is he?" said Rose. "How's freedom suiting him?"

"Ah, miss." said Winky, shaking her head. "Ah miss, meaning no disrespect, miss, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, miss, when you is setting him free."

"Why?" said Rose, taken aback. "What's wrong with him?"

"Freedom is going to Dobby's head, miss." said Winky sadly. "Ideas above his station, miss. Can't get another position, miss."

"Why not?" said Rose. Winky lowered her voice by a half-octave and whispered.

"He is wanting paying for his work, miss."

"Paying?" said Rose blankly. "Well… why shouldn't he be paid?"

Winky looked quite horrified at the idea and closed her fingers slightly so that her face was half-hidden again.

"House-elves is not paid, miss!" she said in a muffled squeak. "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, miss, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you's up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin."

"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun." said Rose.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Rose Potter." said Winky firmly, from behind her hands. "House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Rose Potter." She glanced toward the edge of the box and gulped… "But my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, miss."

"Why'd he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights?" said Rose, frowning.

"Master… master wants me to save him a seat, Rose Potter. He is very busy." said Winky, tilting her head toward the empty space beside her. "Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Rose Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good house-elf."

She gave the edge of the box another frightened look and hid her eyes completely again. Rose turned back to the others.

"So that's a house-elf?" Ron muttered. "Weird things, aren't they?"

"Dobby was weirder." said Rose fervently.

Ron pulled out his Omnioculars and started testing them, staring down into the crowd on the other side of the stadium.

"Wild!" he said, twiddling the replay knob on the side. "I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again… and again… and again…" Hermione, meanwhile, was skimming eagerly through her velvetcovered, tasseled program.

"'A display from the team mascots will precede the match.'" she read aloud.

"Oh, that's always worth watching." said Mr. Weasley. "National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show."

The box filled gradually around them over the next half hour.

Mr. Weasley kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he looked as though he were trying to sit on a hedgehog.

When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered.

Highly embarrassed, he repaired them with his wand and thereafter remained in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Rose, whom Cornelius Fudge had greeted like an old friend.

They had met before and Fudge shook Rose's hand in a fatherly fashion, asked how she was, and introduced her to the wizards on either side of him.

"Rose Potter, you know." he told the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and didn't seem to understand a word of English.

"Rose Potter… oh come on now, you know who she is... the girl who survived You-Know-Who…"

Fudge said helplessly.

Rose just smiled and although she really hated doing this, she swept her bangs away to show her scar.

The Bulgarian wizard suddenly started gabbling loudly and excitedly, pointing at it.

"So, you do know who she is…" Fudge sighed and turned towards Rose.

"Knew we'd get there in the end. Thank you for your help Rose." said Fudge wearily to Rose. "I'm no great shakes at languages, I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat… Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places… ah, and here's Lucius!"

Rose, Ron, and Hermione turned quickly.

Edging along the second row to three still-empty seats right behind Mr. Weasley were none other than Dobby the house-elf's former owners: Lucius Malfoy, his son, Draco, and a woman Rose supposed must be Draco's mother.

Rose and Draco Malfoy had been enemies ever since their very first journey to Hogwarts. A pale boy with a pointed face and white-blond hair, Draco greatly resembled his father.

His mother was blonde too, tall and slim, she would have been nice-looking if she hadn't been wearing a look that suggested there was a nasty smell under her nose.

"Ah, Fudge." said Mr. Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?" said Fudge, smiling and bowing to Mrs. Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr. Oblansk… Obalonsk… Mr…. well, he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else… you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?"

It was a tense moment. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy looked at each other and Rose vividly recalled the last time they had come face-to-face: It had been in Flourish and Blotts' bookshop and they had had a fight.

Mr. Malfoy's cold gray eyes swept over Mr. Weasley, and then up and down the row.

"Good lord, Arthur." he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?" Fudge, who wasn't listening, said.

"Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."

"How… how nice." said Mr. Weasley, with a very strained smile.

Mr. Malfoy's eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. Rose knew exactly what was making Mr. Malfoy's lip curl like that.

The Malfoys prided themselves on being purebloods, in other words, they considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione, second-class.

However, under the gaze of the Minister of Magic, Mr. Malfoy didn't dare say anything.

"Oh and of course, I don't know if you've had the pleasure yet… Your son probably knows her from school, this is Rose Potter."

Mr. Malfoy's cold hard stare locked with Rose's eyes. Rose vividly remembered her last encounter with Mr. Malfoy, he had tried to attack her after she had tricked him in releasing Dobby. But Dobby had stopped him.

"It's an honor." He inclined his head barely visible and his voice dripped of malice. Fudge didn't even notice how Rose and Mr. Malfoy were exchanging hateful looks.

Mr. Malfoy finally ripped his gaze away and nodded sneeringly to Mr. Weasley to continue down the line to his seats.

Draco shot Rose, Ron, and Hermione one contemptuous look, then settled himself between his mother and father.

"Slimy gits." Ron muttered as he, Rose, and Hermione turned to face the field again.

Next moment, Ludo Bagman charged into the box.

"Everyone ready?" he said, his round face gleaming like a great, excited Edam. "Minister… ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo." said Fudge comfortably.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and chanted.

"Sonorus!" Next, he spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium, his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators screamed and clapped.

Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message 'Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans… A Risk With Every Mouthful!' And now showed:

BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce… the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

"I wonder what they've brought." said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!"

He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes.

"Veela!"

"What are veel…?"

But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field and Rose's question was answered for her. Veela were women… the most beautiful women Rose had ever seen… except that they weren't… they couldn't be… human.

This puzzled Rose for a moment while she tried to guess what exactly they could be, what could make their skin shine moon-bright like that, or their whitegold hair fan out behind them without wind… but then the music started and what happened next Rose left completely stunned.

She was studying their dance when a movement caught her eyes.

Ron was trying to climb the wall of the box, but if he did that he'd fall to his death on the field.

"Ron, what are you doing?" said Hermione shrilly.

Rose looked to het other side and she saw the twins pushing each other away to reach the wall first.

"Hey!" Rose snapped and went to stand in front of them.

"Are you guy's crazy?" Rose pushed Fred back, he stumbled and fell on the ground. Rose tried the same with George but he was stronger than he looked and stayed upright. She had to hold George back by pushing on his chest with both hands.

"What in bloody hell is going on?" Rose exclaimed.

Suddenly the music stopped and the veela's stopped dancing.

George stopped trying to reach the edge and Fred blinked up in confusion.

Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Fred joined in the yells. Shaking his hand with fury at the field.

George just seemed completely dazed, his eyes were glossy and he was looking at Rose with confusion.

"George, what were you thinking?"

"I don't know." He whispered, still in a daze he reached for Rose and swiped her hair behind her ear.

Caressing her cheek, making it burn, Rose was sure her face was completely red right now.

"George…" George leaned closer, taking a deep breath.

"George what are you doing?" Rose said totally confused.

He suddenly smiled, the daze disappearing from his eyes.

"Nothing, I'm okay, completely fine." He said with a laugh and he took a step back, making Roses hands drop, which were still touching his chest.

Rose looked around, Hermione had pulled Ron back from doing the same thing and he was now absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat.

Mr. Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.

"You'll be wanting that." he said. "Once Ireland have had their say."

"Huh?" said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.

Hermione made a loud tutting noise.

"Honestly!" she said.

"And now." roared Ludo Bagman's voice. "Kindly put your wands in the air… for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts.

A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light.

The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display.

Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged, they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it…

"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats.

Squinting up at the shamrock, Rose realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

"There you go." Ron yelled happily, stuffing a fistful of gold coins into Rose's hand. "For the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!"

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome… the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you … Dimitrov!"

A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.

"Ivanova!" A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.

"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand… Krum!"

"That's him, that's him!" yelled Ron, following Krum with his Omnioculars. Rose quickly focused her own. Viktor Krum was thin, dark, and sallow-skinned, with a large curved nose and thick black eyebrows.

He looked like an overgrown bird of prey. It was hard to believe he was only eighteen.

"And now, please greet… the Irish National Quidditch Team!" yelled Bagman.

"Presenting… Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand… Lynch!"

Seven green blurs swept onto the field.

Rose spun a small dial on the side of her Omnioculars and slowed the players down enough to read the word "Firebolt" on each of their brooms and see their names, embroidered in silver, upon their backs.

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"

A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a mustache to rival Uncle Vernon's, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the field.

A silver whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other.

Rose spun the speed dial on her Omnioculars back to normal, watching closely as Mostafa mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open… four balls burst into the air: the scarlet Quaffle, the two black Bludgers, and (Rose saw it for the briefest moment, before it sped out of sight) the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch.

With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman.

"And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"

It was Quidditch as Rose had never seen it played before. She was pressing her Omnioculars so hard to her eyes that they were cutting into her eyelids.

The speed of the players was incredible… the Chasers were throwing the Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names.

Rose spun the slow dial on the right of her Omnioculars again, pressed the play-by-play button on the top and she was immediately watching in slow motion, while glittering purple lettering flashed across the lenses and the noise of the crowd pounded against his eardrums.

HAWKSHEAD ATTACKING FORMATION

She read as she watched the three Irish Chasers zoom closely together, Troy in the center, slightly ahead of Mullet and Moran, bearing down upon the Bulgarians.

PORSKOFF PLOY

Flashed up next, as Troy made as though to dart upward with the Quaffle, drawing away the Bulgarian Chaser Ivanova and dropping the Quaffle to Moran.

One of the Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov, swung hard at a passing Bludger with his small club, knocking it into Moran's path, Moran ducked to avoid the Bludger and dropped the Quaffle and Levski, soaring beneath, caught it…

"TROY SCORES!" roared Bagman, and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause and cheers. "Ten zero to Ireland!"

"What?" Rose yelled, looking wildly around through her Omnioculars.

"But Levski's got the Quaffle!"

"Rose, if you're not going to watch at normal speed, you're going to miss things!" shouted Hermione, who was dancing up and down, waving her arms in the air while Troy did a lap of honor around the field.

Rose looked quickly over the top of her Omnioculars and saw that the leprechauns watching from the sidelines had all risen into the air again and formed the great, glittering shamrock. Across the field, the veela were watching them sulkily.

Furious with herself, Rose spun her speed dial back to normal as play resumed.

Rose knew enough about Quidditch to see that the Irish Chasers were superb.

They worked as a seamless team, their movements so well coordinated that they appeared to be reading one another's minds as they positioned themselves, and the rosette on Rose's chest kept squeaking their names: "Troy… Mullet… Moran!"

And within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to thirty-zero and causing a thunderous tide of roars and applause from the green-clad supporters.

The match became still faster, but more brutal.

Volkov and Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters, were whacking the Bludgers as fiercely as possible at the Irish Chasers, and were starting to prevent them from using some of their best moves, twice they were forced to scatter and then, finally, Ivanova managed to break through their ranks, dodge the Keeper, Ryan and score Bulgaria's first goal.

"Fingers in your ears!" bellowed Mr. Weasley as the veela started to dance in celebration.

The boys promptly did what their father said except George… he was just looking at Rose and smiled.

"Shouldn't you cover your ears?"

"I'm fine."

"You weren't fine before…"

George just smiled at her and Rose decided that the twins were even weirder than she had thought.

The veela had stopped dancing, and Bulgaria was again in possession of the Quaffle.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova — oh I say!" roared Bagman. One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes.

Rose followed their descent through her Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was… "They're going to crash!" screamed Hermione next to Rose.

She was half right… at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.

"Fool!" moaned Mr. Weasley. "Krum was feinting!"

"It's time-out!" yelled Bagman's voice. "As trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

"He'll be okay, he only got ploughed!" Charlie said reassuringly to Ginny, who was hanging over the side of the box, looking horror-struck.

"Which is what Krum was after, of course…"

Rose hastily pressed the replay and play-by-play buttons on her Omnioculars, twiddled the speed dial, and put them back up to her eyes.

She watched as Krum and Lynch dived again in slow motion.

WRONSKI DEFENSIVE FEINT — DANGEROUS SEEKER DIVERSION read the shining purple lettering across her lenses.

She saw Krum's face contorted with concentration as he pulled out of the dive just in time, while Lynch was flattened, and she understood… Krum hadn't seen the Snitch at all, he was just making Lynch copy him.

Rose had never seen anyone fly like that, Krum hardly looked as though he was using a broomstick at all, he moved so easily through the air that he looked unsupported and weightless.

Rose turned her Omnioculars back to normal and focused them on Krum.

He was now circling high above Lynch, who was being revived by mediwizards with cups of potion. Rose, focusing still more closely upon Krum's face, saw his dark eyes darting all over the ground a hundred feet below.

He was using the time while Lynch was revived to look for the Snitch without interference. Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters, mounted his Firebolt, and kicked back off into the air.

His revival seemed to give Ireland new heart.

When Mostafa blew his whistle again, the Chasers moved into action with a skill unrivaled by anything Rose had seen so far. After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more goals. They were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the game was starting to get dirtier.

As Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again, clutching the Quaffle tightly under her arm, the Bulgarian Keeper, Zograf, flew out to meet her.

Whatever happened was over so quickly Rose didn't catch it, but a scream of rage from the Irish crowd, and Mostafa's long, shrill whistle blast, told her it had been a foul.

"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing… excessive use of elbows!" Bagman informed the roaring spectators. "And… yes, it's a penalty to Ireland!"

The leprechauns, who had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering hornets when Mullet had been fouled, now darted together to form the words;

"HA, HA, HA!"

The veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their hair angrily and started to dance again. As one, the Weasley boys stuffed their fingers into their ears except George once again, but Hermione, who hadn't bothered, was soon tugging on Rose's arm. She turned to look at her. "Look at the referee!" she said, giggling.

Rose looked down at the field. Hassan Mostafa had landed right in front of the dancing veela, and was acting very oddly indeed. He was flexing his muscles and smoothing his mustache excitedly. "Now, we can't have that!" said Ludo Bagman, though he sounded highly amused. "Somebody slap the referee!"

A mediwizard came tearing across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins.

Mostafa seemed to come to himself, Rose, watching through the Omnioculars again, saw that he looked exceptionally embarrassed and had started shouting at the veela, who had stopped dancing and were looking mutinous.

"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots!" said Bagman's voice. "Now there's something we haven't seen before… Oh this could turn nasty…"

It did: The Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, landed on either side of Mostafa and began arguing furiously with him, gesticulating toward the leprechauns, who had now gleefully formed the words;

"HEE, HEE, HEE."

Mostafa was not impressed by the Bulgarians' arguments, however, he was jabbing his finger into the air, clearly telling them to get flying again and when they refused, he gave two short blasts on his whistle.

"Two penalties for Ireland!" shouted Bagman, and the Bulgarian crowd howled with anger.

"And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms… yes... there they go… and Troy takes the Quaffle…"

Play now reached a level of ferocity beyond anything they had yet seen.

The Beaters on both sides were acting without mercy: Volkov and Vulchanov in particular seemed not to care whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or human as they swung them violently through the air.

Dimitrov shot straight at Moran, who had the Quaffle, nearly knocking her off her broom.

"Foul!" roared the Irish supporters as one, all standing up in a great wave of green.

"Foul!" echoed Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice. "Dimitrov skins Moran… deliberately flying to collide there… and it's got to be another penalty… yes, there's the whistle!"

The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant hand, which was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field.

At this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Watching through her Omnioculars, Rose saw that they didn't look remotely beautiful now.

On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders…

"And that, boys." yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below. "Is why you should never go for looks alone!"

Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success; meanwhile, the pitched battle below was nothing to the one taking place above.

Rose turned this way and that, staring through his Omnioculars, as the Quaffle changed hands with the speed of a bullet.

"Levski — Dimitrov — Moran — Troy — Mullet — Ivanova — Moran again — Moran — MORAN SCORES!"

But the cheers of the Irish supporters were barely heard over the shrieks of the veela, the blasts now issuing from the Ministry members' wands and the furious roars of the Bulgarians.

The game recommenced immediately; now Levski had the Quaffle, now Dimitrov…

The Irish Beater Quigley swung heavily at a passing Bludger, and hit it as hard as possible toward Krum, who did not duck quickly enough. It hit him full in the face.

There was a deafening groan from the crowd, Krum's nose looked broken, there was blood everywhere, but Hassan Mostafa didn't blow his whistle.

He had become distracted, and Rose couldn't blame him, one of the veela had thrown a handful of fire and set his broom tail alight.

Rose wanted someone to realize that Krum was injured, even though she was supporting Ireland, Krum was the most exciting player on the field.

Ron obviously felt the same.

"Time-out! Ah, come on, he can't play like that, look at him…"

"Look at Lynch!" Rose yelled.

For the Irish Seeker had suddenly gone into a dive, and Rose was quite sure that this was no Wronski Feint, this was the real thing...

"He's seen the Snitch!" Rose shouted. "He's seen it! Look at him go!"

Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening, the Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on… but Krum was on his tail.

How he could see where he was going, Rose had no idea, there were flecks of blood flying through the air behind him, but he was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again…

"They're going to crash!" shrieked Hermione.

"They're not!" roared Ron.

"Lynch is!" yelled Rose.

And she was right… for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela.

"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, along the row.

"He's got it… Krum's got it… it's all over!" shouted Rose.

Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand. The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realized what had happened.

Then, slowly, as though a great jumbo jet were revving up, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight.

"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match.

"KRUM GETS THE SNITCH… BUT IRELAND WINS… good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"What did he catch the Snitch for?" Ron bellowed, even as he jumped up and down, applauding with his hands over his head. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"

"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Rose shouted back over all the noise, also applauding loudly. "The Irish Chasers were too good... He wanted to end it on his terms, that's all..."

"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione said, leaning forward to watch Krum land as a swarm of mediwizards blasted a path through the battling leprechauns and veela to get to him.

"He looks a terrible mess…" Rose put her Omnioculars to her eyes again. It was hard to see what was happening below, because leprechauns were zooming delightedly all over the field, but she could just make out Krum, surrounded by mediwizards.

He looked surlier than ever and refused to let them mop him up. His team members were around him, shaking their heads and looking dejected, a short way away, the Irish players were dancing gleefully in a shower of gold descending from their mascots.

Flags were waving all over the stadium, the Irish national anthem blared from all sides, the veela were shrinking back into their usual, beautiful selves now, though looking dispirited and forlorn. "Vell, ve fought bravely." said a gloomy voice behind Rose.

She looked around, it was the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.

"You can speak English!" said Fudge, sounding outraged. "And you've been letting me mime everything all day!"

"Vell, it vos very funny." said the Bulgarian minister, shrugging.

"And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World Cup itself is brought into the Top Box!" roared Bagman. Rose's eyes were suddenly dazzled by a blinding white light, as the Top Box was magically illuminated so that everyone in the stands could see the inside. Squinting toward the entrance, she saw two panting wizards carrying a vast golden cup into the box, which they handed to Cornelius Fudge, who was still looking very disgruntled that he'd been using sign language all day for nothing.

"Let's have a really loud hand for the gallant losers… Bulgaria!" Bagman shouted.

And up the stairs into the box came the seven defeated Bulgarian players.

The crowd below was applauding appreciatively, Rose could see thousands and thousands of Omniocular lenses flashing and winking in their direction.

One by one, the Bulgarians filed between the rows of seats in the box, and Bagman called out the name of each as they shook hands with their own minister and then with Fudge.

Krum, who was last in line, looked a real mess. Two black eyes were blooming spectacularly on his bloody face. He was still holding the Snitch.

Rose noticed that he seemed much less coordinated on the ground. He was slightly duck-footed and distinctly round-shouldered.

But when Krum's name was announced, the whole stadium gave him a resounding, earsplitting roar. And then came the Irish team.

Aidan Lynch was being supported by Moran and Connolly, the second crash seemed to have dazed him and his eyes looked strangely unfocused.

But he grinned happily as Troy and Quigley lifted the Cup into the air and the crowd below thundered its approval. Rose's hands were numb with clapping.

At last, when the Irish team had left the box to perform another lap of honor on their brooms, Aidan Lynch on the back of Connolly's, clutching hard around his waist and still grinning in a bemused sort of way, Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and muttered.

"Quietus."

"They'll be talking about this one for years." he said hoarsely. "A really unexpected twist, that… shame it couldn't have lasted longer… Ah yes… yes, I owe you… how much?"

For Fred and George had just scrambled over the backs of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Let me know what you think, I love reading your reviews :)

XXX D.


	9. Chapter 9: The Dark Mark

Chapter Nine

THE DARK MARK

"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling." Mr. Weasley implored Fred and George as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs.

"Don't worry, Dad." said Fred gleefully. "We've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated."

Mr. Weasley looked for a moment as though he was going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.

They were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. Raucous singing was borne toward them on the night air as they retraced their steps along the lantern-lit path and leprechauns kept shooting over their heads, cackling and waving their lanterns.

When they finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all and given the level of noise around them, Mr. Weasley agreed that they could all have one last cup of cocoa together before turning in. While he was preparing them, someone shouted from outside the tent.

"Arthur! You still celebrating?"

"Amos? Come in!"

Cedric and his father entered the tent. Both with huge grins on their faces, the only difference was that Cedric's smile was directed at Rose.

"Can we join you?"

"Of course, of course, I was just making hot cocoa. Want some?"

Cedric strode over to Rose the minute Mr. Weasley had given his okay to join them.

"So, what did you think?" Cedric asked.

"It was amazing, it's so different to actually be there instead of joining in on a memory. Not that I didn't enjoy your memory, it's just different."

Rose was rambling a bit, the match had left her overexcited.

"But it was good that I had seen your memory first. I would have been too overwhelmed to actually pay attention. And then I would have missed all those maneuvers, they were really impressive."

Cedric laughed and hugged her.

"You're tired."

"No, I'm not." Rose protested.

"You're rambling, you do that when you're nervous or tired."

"I do?"

Cedric nodded happily.

"So, what did you think of the Veela?" Rose said playfully.

"They didn't bother me." Cedric said calmly, while taking the chair next to Rose.

"Not at all?" Rose said surprised. "You didn't have to plug your ears?"

"No."

"All the boys had to do it or they would be tempted to do something stupid, like jumping off the topbox."

Cedric laughed loudly at that.

"I kept thinking of you and I was fine. I talked about it with dad and he said that when you're in love you don't get affected that much by them."

Hearing that made Rose's heart flutter and spread a warmth trough her.

Cedric smiled sweetly at her, before taking the cup of hot cocoa Mr. Weasley was bringing to everyone. While he was busy drinking, a knot in Rose's stomach twisted and her eyes flicked to George.

George wasn't sitting very far away and his face was very red, although he seemed calm.

When you're in love…

It couldn't be! No! He was affected the first time. She had to stop him from jumping off. It was only after he could control himself.

No way.

Rose was convincing herself that it wasn't possible, he saw her as a sister. And he had been affected. And while convincing herself the knot in her stomach tightened.

"So, Rose what did you think of the match?" Charlie suddenly pulled her into the conversation.

They were soon arguing enjoyably about the match, Mr. Weasley got drawn into a disagreement about cobbing with Charlie and it was only when Ginny fell asleep right at the tiny table and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor that Mr. Weasley called a halt to the verbal replays and insisted that everyone go to bed.

Hermione, Rose and Ginny left the tent to go into the other one. Mr. Diggory and Cedric followed them outside.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Cedric asked.

"Ofcourse!" Mr. Diggory interceded. "We're taking the same portkey!"

Rose smiled widely.

"Goodnight Rose." Cedric said and gave her a sweet kiss on the corner of her mouth.

Hermione and Ginny started giggling behind her.

"Bye."

Hermione, Rose and Ginny went into the next tent and they changed into their pajamas and clambered into their bunks.

From the other side of the campsite they could still hear much singing and the odd echoing bang. Rose, who was on a top bunk above Hermione, lay staring up at the canvas ceiling of the tent, watching the glow of an occasional leprechaun lantern flying overhead and picturing again some of Krum's more spectacular moves.

She was itching to get back on her own Firebolt and try out the Wronski Feint… Somehow Oliver Wood had never managed to convey with all his wriggling diagrams what that move was supposed to look like...

Rose saw herself in robes that had her name on the back, and imagined the sensation of hearing a hundred-thousand-strong crowd roar, as Ludo Bagman's voice echoed throughout the stadium.

"I give you... Potter!"

Rose never knew whether or not she had actually dropped off to sleep… her fantasies of flying like Krum might well have slipped into actual dreams… all she knew was that, quite suddenly, Mr. Weasley was shouting.

"Get up! Hermione, Ginny, Rose… come on now, get up, this is urgent!"

Rose sat up quickly and the top of her head hit canvas.

"S' matter?" She said.

Dimly, she could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. She could hear screams and the sound of people running.

She slipped down from the bunk and reached for her clothes, but Mr. Weasley, who had pulled on his jeans over his own pajamas, stopped her.

"No time, Rose… just grab a jacket and get outside… quickly!"

Rose did as she was told and hurried out of the tent, Hermione and Ginny at her heels.

By the light of the few fires that were still burning, she could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire.

Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them, then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.

A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field.

Rose squinted at them... They didn't seem to have faces...

Then she realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked.

High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes.

It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air.

Two of the figures were very small.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies.

Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled.

Once or twice Rose saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire.

The screaming grew louder.

The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Rose recognized one of them: Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager.

The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children.

One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand, her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"That's sick." Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick…"

At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot… get into the woods and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers.

Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble.

The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.

"C'mon." said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the woods.

Rose, Ron, Hermione, and George followed.

They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever, they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty.

It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall. The colored lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished.

Dark figures were blundering through the trees, children were crying, anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air.

Rose felt herself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces she could not see. Then she heard Ron yell with pain.

"What happened?" said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Rose walked into her.

"Ron, where are you? Oh, this is stupid - lumos!" She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.

"Tripped over a tree root." he said angrily, getting to his feet again.

Rose wanted to help him but suddenly a wave of people came towards them and though as hard as Rose tried she couldn't stop being pulled away from Hermione and Ron.

"Ron, Hermione!"

"Rose!"

"Rose!"

Suddenly the people scattered Rose started running back but she realized she couldn't see Hermione and Ron anymore.

She spun around multiple times, but they weren't in sight anymore.

Rose cursed under her breath and wanted to head towards the woods but another wave of people passed. And they were moving in the wrong direction.

They looked thoroughly drunk and a lot rougher.

Rose got pulled and pushed around until one of them glanced at her face, more specifically her scar.

Sickening smiles appeared on their faces and Rose's neck hairs rose.

"Hey! You're…"

"What do we've got here."

"Let's take her to them…"

Suddenly both her arms were stuck in an iron hold that squeezed the blood flow shut in her veins.

Rose struggled to get free, bit clawed, kicked but to no avail. The marching group came closer and she could see now their masks were like skulls. A horrible realization dawned on Rose, muggle haters, violent, and they want to bring her to them, not her as a girl, but her, The-Girl-Who-Lived…

That could only sum up to one thing, Voldemort followers.

Panic almost stopped her heart and her magic started to rise up in her. She felt the air around her grow heavy with energy, and the familiar ripple through her skin instantly made her more comfortable.

Rose almost smiled when she let the energy flow by giving a mental, hard, push.

The invisible force knocked the men who were holding her off their feet.

The iron grip released her and Rose stood, ready to make a run for it. But she was surrounded.

"You little! How did you…"

The men on the ground cursed. And while they were getting up, Rose noticed something else.

Everyone that was surrounding her were all men and they now all had a hunger in their eyes that made Rose break out in cold sweat.

Her muscles locked in place and subconsciously she got into a fighting stance. Rose rolled up the sleeves of her jacket and reached into it's pockets.

She wanted to pull out her wand but to her horror it wasn't there. The only thing she could find was her Omnioculars. She must have lost it in the commontion.

"Oh, how adorable, she's getting ready to fight."

"Where is your wand, pretty girl?"

At the sound of their mocking voices, Rose gritted her teeth in anger.

One of the men reached for her and she slapped his hand away.

Amused chuckles sounded in the group.

She had to slap multiple hands away, they started tearing and scratching.

They were drawing nearer, as well as the people wearing the masks drew closer.

Her heart started beating overtime now, kicking the adrenaline in.

It was coursing through her veins and Rose felt it awakening her magic, once more.

She was building it up, getting ready to blast them all into oblivion.

Suddenly a loud bang sounded right above them and everyone looked up in surprise.

During the confusion, something knocked the men to her right over.

An iron, painful grip yanked at her arm and practically started dragging her away.

It all happened so fast, Rose let it happen in the confusion.

"I swear…" A cold voice entered her ear and she wanted to push him away, her magic ready to be released.

"… You must have a death wish Potter."

And suddenly Rose knew who was dragging her away.

"Hey!"

One of the men shouted and the grip tightened even more, she had to run to keep up.

When there were enough people between them and the group of men, they slowed down again.

She glanced up and took in Draco Malfoy's features in reddish light from the fires. His jaw was locked tight and the anger shone like blue flames in his eyes.

"Malfoy?"

"Shut it." He hissed and he quickly glanced around, but they weren't in the thick of the group anymore, they were back in the flow of people running towards the woods.

His grip on her arm hardened and Rose had to suppress a wince of pain. Her arm felt crushed after the brute force of those men and now Malfoy's grip.

Malfoy was muttering something under his breath, it sounded as a rant.

"… not a grain of brains in those Weasley's, they should have gotten her out of here immediately. Idiot's. What was she thinking getting so close, always the hero, doesn't she know what they would do…"

"I'm not stupid Malfoy. I know who those people are. Some guys dragged me up there, I was trying to get away." Rose said calmly.

Malfoy looked surprised for a second, he hadn't expected Rose to hear him.

"Have you ever heard of a wand Potter? Even minors are allowed to use them outside of school when in danger."

"I… I think I lost it in the thick of the mass." Rose said softly, trying to hide the panic about losing her wand.

They reached the tree's and Malfoy stopped marching, turned around and looked at her.

"Then how did you get loose? I saw them falling did you kick them or something?" Disgust sounded through his voice when he said 'kick'.

"No Malfoy, I did it the same way I pushed you up against the wall that time in the corridors." Rose snapped.

Surprise flashed across his face.

"You still have your outbursts of magic?" Malfoy asked stunned.

"When I panic." Rose responded carefully, not wanting to give too much away, he was still a Malfoy after all. "Can you let go of me now?"

A jolt went through Malfoy and he let go of her arm.

Blood flow was restored and Rose felt pins in her arm. She glanced down and saw the start of a bruise forming on her arm.

Malfoy saw the bruise, sighed and took out his wand.

"Episkey." Her arm instantly felt a lot better and the dark colors faded. She looked him gratefully in the eyes. Like a miracle, Rose felt a smile creeping up her face. Who would have thought, Draco Malfoy to her rescue.

They looked at each other for a while and a heartfelt 'thank you' started to form in her mouth.

At least until Malfoy provided her with a cold shower.

"Now run off and find your mudblood and weasel."

Anger flared up in Rose.

"What is your deal huh?"

Malfoy just looked at her, a stoic look creeping in his eyes. The blue flames were extinguished.

"You almost convinced me you can be decent and then you say something like that." Rose snapped.

"I'm not decent, I'm a Malfoy."

Normally he would sound proud while saying that, but now it just came out flatly.

"That is not everything you are!"

"Yes, it is."

"If it is, why save me? You could have just let them have me and kill me. Your father would be happy with that, he tried it in second year."

Suddenly pain and panic flashed in his eyes. It was so fast Rose almost though she had imagined it but his next words made her doubt that.

"He did what?!" Malfoy almost shouted.

"I tricked him into freeing Dobby, when he realized that, he tried to curse me but Dobby stopped him."

Malfoy looked… well Rose couldn't really determine what he looked like. Before she could register it Malfoy quickly recovered from his outburst and the stoic look came back.

"Well then, you're right, I should have left you there."

"Why didn't you?"

Malfoy seemed to be looking for an answer himself.

"Last year you saved me, I repaid you the favor. I'm no longer in your debt."

Rose remembered her automatic reaction to save Malfoy from Buckbeak. It had happened so fast, she automatically had tried to keep him out of harm's way. They had been enemy from the first day of school and still she had felt the pull to save him.

"You were never…"

"Rose!"

"Rose!"

"Nobody hears about what happened Potter." Malfoy whispered sharply before the voices reached them. She wanted to snap a refusal but something in his eyes stopped her.

Hermione and Ron were panting when they joined her.

During the last steps, Ron tripped again and cursed.

"Stop tripping Ron!" Hermione said.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to." Said Draco in a drawling voice. Ron told Malfoy to do something that Rose knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"Language, Weasley." said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"

He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.

"Granger, they're after Muggles." said Malfoy. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around… they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

Rose had to use everything in her might not to punch Malfoy in the face. They had just finished their first somewhat 'normal' conversation and now the cold, hard, hostile mask she knew all too well had slipped on again. She wanted to punch him and see if it could slip off again.

"Hermione's a witch." Rose snarled.

"Have it your own way, Potter." said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron.

"Never mind, Ron." said Hermione quickly, seizing Ron's arm to restrain him as he took a step toward Malfoy. There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything they had heard. Several people nearby screamed. Malfoy chuckled softly, but without humor.

"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to… trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where're your parents?" said Rose, her temper rising. "Out there wearing masks, are they?"

Malfoy turned his face to Rose, still smiling that cold emotionless smile of his.

"Well... if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"

"Oh, come on." said Hermione, with a disgusted look at Malfoy. "Let's go and find the others."

"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger." sneered Malfoy.

"Come on." Hermione repeated, and she pulled Rose and Ron up the path again. Rose glanced back before Malfoy got out of view, and he was still looking at her with a different expression on his face. Was it relief? She couldn't analyze it further because the trees took him out of view.

"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" said Ron hotly.

"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him!" said Hermione fervently. "Oh, I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"

Fred, George, and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite.

A huddle of teenagers in pajamas was arguing vociferously a little way along the path. When they saw Rose, Ron, and Hermione, a girl with thick curly hair turned and said quickly.

"Où est Madame Maxime? Nous l'avons perdue…"

"Er… what?" said Ron.

"Oh..." The girl who had spoken turned her back on him, and as they walked on they distinctly heard her say.

"Ogwarts."

"Beauxbatons." muttered Hermione.

"Sorry?" said Ron.

"They must go to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "You know... Beauxbatons Academy of Magic... I read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe."

"Think of it as Hogwarts but in French." Rose explained, when she remembered the name.

"Fred and George can't have gone that far." said Ron, pulling out his wand, lighting it like Hermione's, and squinting up the path.

"Rose come on, light yours as well." Hermione said.

"I lost mine somewhere, it wasn't in my pockets anymore." Rose admitted sullenly.

Ron and Hermione looked surprised but before they could say anything a rustling noise nearby made all three of them jump.

Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty, it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high… high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as she fought the force that was restraining her.

"What's up with her?" said Ron, looking curiously after Winky. "Why can't she run properly?"

"Bet she didn't ask permission to hide." said Rose.

She was thinking of Dobby: Every time he had tried to do something the Malfoys wouldn't like, the house-elf had been forced to start beating himself up.

"You know, house-elves get a very raw deal!" said Hermione indignantly. "It's slavery, that's what it is! That Mr. Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium and she was terrified and he's got her bewitched so she can't even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn't anyone do something about it?"

"Well, the elves are happy, aren't they?" Ron said. "You heard old Winky back at the match… 'House-elves is not supposed to have fun'… that's what she likes, being bossed around…"

"It's people like you, Ron." Hermione began hotly. "Who prop up rotten and unjust systems, just because they're too lazy to…"

Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.

"Let's just keep moving, shall we?" said Rose, breaking up the argument.

They set off again and followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny.

They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite.

Farther still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!" one of them shouted. "I'm a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."

"No, you're not!" yelled his friend. "You're a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron… but I'm a vampire hunter, I've killed about ninety so far…"

A third young wizard, whose pimples were visible even by the dim, silvery light of the veela, now cut in.

"I'm about to become the youngest ever Minister of Magic, I am." Rose snorted with laughter. She recognized the pimply wizard: His name was Stan Shunpike, and he was in fact a conductor on the triple-decker Knight Bus.

She turned to tell Ron this, but Ron's face had gone oddly slack and next second Ron was yelling.

"Did I tell you I've invented a broomstick that'll reach Jupiter?"

"Honestly!" said Hermione, and she and Rose grabbed Ron firmly by the arms, wheeled him around, and marched him away.

By the time the sounds of the veela and their admirers had faded completely, they were in the very heart of the wood. They seemed to be alone now, everything was much quieter. Rose looked around. "I reckon we can just wait here, you know. We'll hear anyone coming a mile off."

The words were hardly out of her mouth, when Ludo Bagman emerged from behind a tree right ahead of them. Even by the feeble light of the two wands, Rose could see that a great change had come over Bagman.

He no longer looked buoyant and rosy-faced, there was no more spring in his step. He looked very white and strained.

"Who's that?" he said, blinking down at them, trying to make out their faces. "What are you doing in here, all alone?"

They looked at one another, surprised.

"Well… there's a sort of riot going on." said Ron. Bagman stared at him.

"What?"

"At the campsite… some people have got hold of a family of Muggles… Bagman swore loudly.

"Damn them!" he said, looking quite distracted and without another word, he Disapparated with a small pop!

"Not exactly on top of things, Mr. Bagman, is he?" said Hermione, frowning.

"He was a great Beater, though." said Ron, leading the way off the path into a small clearing, and sitting down on a patch of dry grass at the foot of a tree. "The Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times in a row while he was with them."

He took his small figure of Krum out of his pocket, set it down on the ground, and watched it walk around. Like the real Krum, the model was slightly duck-footed and round-shouldered, much less impressive on his splayed feet than on his broomstick.

Rose was listening for noise from the campsite. Everything seemed much quieter, perhaps the riot was over.

"I hope the others are okay." said Hermione after a while.

"They'll be fine." said Ron.

"Imagine if your dad catches Lucius Malfoy." said Rose, sitting down next to Ron and watching the small figure of Krum slouching over the fallen leaves. "He's always said he'd like to get something on him." And maybe it would knock some sense in his son, Rose thought.

"That'd wipe the smirk off old Draco's face, all right." said Ron.

"Those poor Muggles, though." said Hermione nervously. "What if they can't get them down?"

"They will." said Ron reassuringly. "They'll find a way."

"Mad, though, to do something like that when the whole Ministry of Magic's out here tonight!" said Hermione. "I mean, how do they expect to get away with it? Do you think they've been drinking, or are they just…"

But she broke off abruptly and looked over her shoulder.

Rose and Ron looked quickly around too. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward their clearing. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees.

But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"Hello?" called Rose. There was silence. Rose got to her feet and peered around the tree.

It was too dark to see very far, but she could sense somebody standing just beyond the range of her vision.

"Who's there?" She said. And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood, and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell. "MORSMORDRE!"

And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Rose's eyes had been struggling to penetrate, it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

"What the…?" gasped Ron as he sprang to his feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared. For a split second, Rose thought it was another leprechaun formation.

Then she realized that it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue.

As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.

Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams. Rose didn't understand why, but the only possible cause was the sudden appearance of the skull, which had now risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood like some grisly neon sign.

She scanned the darkness for the person who had conjured the skull, but she couldn't see anyone. "Who's there?" She called again.

"Rose, come on, move!" Hermione had seized the collar of her jacket and was tugging her backward. "What's the matter?" Rose said, startled to see her face so white and terrified.

"It's the Dark Mark, Rose!" Hermione moaned, pulling her as hard as she could. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

"Voldemort's…"

"Rose, come on!" Rose turned, Ron was hurriedly scooping up his miniature Krum, the three of them started across the clearing, but before they had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them.

Rose whirled around and in an instant, she registered one fact. Each of these wizards had his wand out, and every wand was pointing right at herself, Ron, and Hermione. Without pausing to think, she yelled.

"DUCK!" She seized the other two and pulled them down onto the ground.

"STUPEFY!" roared twenty voices, there was a blinding series of flashes and Rose felt the hair on her head ripple as though a powerful wind had swept the clearing.

Raising her head a fraction of an inch she saw jets of fiery red light flying over them from the wizards' wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness…

"Stop!" yelled a voice she recognized.

"STOP! That's my son!"

Rose's hair stopped blowing about. She raised her head a little higher.

The wizard in front of her had lowered his wand. She rolled over and saw Mr. Weasley striding toward them, looking terrified.

"Ron… Rose…" His voice sounded shaky. "Hermione… are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur." said a cold, curt voice.

It was Mr. Crouch.

He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them. Rose got to her feet to face them. Mr. Crouch's face was taut with rage.

"Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that!" said Rose, gesturing up at the skull.

"We didn't do anything!" said Ron, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father.

"What did you want to attack us for?"

"Do not lie, child!" shouted Mr. Crouch. His wand was still pointing directly at Ron and his eyes were popping… he looked slightly mad.

"You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Barty." Whispered a witch in a long woolen dressing gown. "They're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to…"

"Where did the Mark come from, you three?" said Mr. Weasley quickly.

"Over there." said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice.

"There was someone behind the trees… they shouted words… an incantation…"

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Hermione now, disbelief etched all over his face. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy …"

But none of the Ministry wizards apart from Mr. Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that Rose, Ron, or Hermione had conjured the skull, on the contrary, at Hermione's words, they had all raised their wands again and were pointing in the direction she had indicated, squinting through the dark trees.

"We're too late." said the witch in the woolen dressing gown, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so." said a wizard with a scrubby brown beard. It was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. "Our Stunners went right through those trees… There's a good chance we got them…"

"Amos, be careful!" said a few of the wizards warningly as Mr. Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing and disappeared into the darkness.

Hermione watched him vanish with her hands over her mouth.

A few seconds later, they heard Mr. Diggory shout.

"Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's… but… blimey…"

"You've got someone?" shouted Mr. Crouch, sounding highly disbelieving. "Who? Who is it?"

They heard snapping twigs, the rustling of leaves, and then crunching footsteps as Mr. Diggory reemerged from behind the trees.

He was carrying a tiny, limp figure in his arms. Rose recognized the tea towel at once.

It was Winky.

Mr. Crouch did not move or speak as Mr. Diggory deposited his elf on the ground at his feet.

The other Ministry wizards were all staring at Mr. Crouch.

For a few seconds, Crouch remained transfixed, his eyes blazing in his white face as he stared down at Winky. Then he appeared to come to life again.

"This… cannot… be." he said jerkily. "No…"

He moved quickly around Mr. Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky. "No point, Mr. Crouch." Mr. Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there."

But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it.

They could hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching.

"Bit embarrassing." Mr. Diggory said grimly, looking down at Winky's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf… I mean to say..."

"Come off it, Amos." said Mr. Weasley quietly. "You don't seriously think it was the elf? The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"Yeah." said Mr. Diggory. "And she had a wand."

"What?" said Mr. Weasley.

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr. Weasley. "Had it in her hand. So, that's clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken, for a start. No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand."

Just then there was another pop and Ludo Bagman Apparated right next to Mr. Weasley. Looking breathless and disorientated, he spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull.

"The Dark Mark!" he panted, almost trampling Winky as he turned inquiringly to his colleagues. "Who did it? Did you get them? Barty! What's going on?"

Mr. Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still ghostly white, and his hands and his toothbrush mustache were both twitching.

"Where have you been, Barty?" said Bagman. "Why weren't you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too… gulping gargoyles!" Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. "What happened to her?"

"I have been busy, Ludo." said Mr. Crouch, still talking in the same jerky fashion, barely moving his lips. "And my elf has been stunned."

"Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why …?" Comprehension dawned suddenly on Bagman's round, shiny face, he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr. Crouch.

"No!" he said. "Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn't know how! She'd need a wand, for a start!"

"And she had one." said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one, Ludo. If it's all right with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself."

Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Mr. Diggory, but Mr. Diggory seemed to take his silence for assent.

He raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and chanted.

"Ennervate!" Winky stirred feebly.

Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by the silent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position. She caught sight of Mr. Diggory's feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face, then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky.

Rose could see the floating skull reflected twice in her enormous, glassy eyes.

She gave a gasp, looked wildly around the crowded clearing and burst into terrified sobs.

"Elf!" said Mr. Diggory sternly. "Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!"

Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

Rose was reminded forcibly of Dobby in his moments of terrified disobedience.

"As you see, elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here a short while ago." said Mr. Diggory. "And you were discovered moments later, right beneath it! An explanation, if you please!"

"I… I… I is not doing it, sir!" Winky gasped. "I is not knowing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" barked Mr. Diggory, brandishing it in front of her. And as the wand caught the green light that was filling the clearing from the skull above, Rose recognized it.

"Hey… that's mine!" She said Everyone in the clearing looked at her.

"Excuse me?" said Mr. Diggory, incredulously.

"That's my wand!" said Rose. "I dropped it!"

Everybody stared at her, their eyebrows very high on their foreheads. Rose was growing uncomfortable.

"Well at least I think I dropped it. I noticed it was gone a long while back, it must have happened while we were fleeing towards the woods. I swear, I would never…"

"Don't be ridiculous." Mr. Diggory waved as it the movement would swipe the stares away. "We know you didn't do it. The Girl-Who-Lived casting the dark mark…"

The other adults seemed to relax.

"So." said Mr. Diggory, his eyes hardening as he turned to look at Winky again, cowering at his feet. "You found this wand, eh, elf? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?"

"I is not doing magic with it, sir!" squealed Winky, tears streaming down the sides of her squashed and bulbous nose.

"I is... I is... I is just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!"

"It wasn't her!" said Hermione. She looked very nervous, speaking up in front of all these Ministry wizards, yet determined all the same.

"Winky's got a squeaky little voice and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" She looked around at Rose and Ron, appealing for their support. "It didn't sound anything like Winky, did it?"

"No, Hermione's right." said Rose, shaking her head. "It definitely didn't sound like an elf."

"Yeah, it was a human voice." said Ron.

"Well, we'll soon see." growled Mr. Diggory, looking unimpressed. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flapping, as Mr. Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Rose's.

"Prior Incantato!" roared Mr. Diggory.

Rose heard Hermione gasp, horrified, as a gigantic serpent-tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, but it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them, it looked as though it were made of thick gray smoke, the ghost of a spell.

"Deletrius!" Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke. "So." Said Mr. Diggory with a kind of savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively. "I is not doing it!" she squealed, her eyes rolling in terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn't using wands, I isn't knowing how!"

"You've been caught red-handed, elf!" Mr. Diggory roared. "Caught with the guilty wand in your hand!"

"Amos." said Mr. Weasley loudly. "Think about it… precious few wizards know how to do that spell… Where would she have learned it?"

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting." said Mr. Crouch, cold anger in every syllable. "That I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

There was a deeply unpleasant silence. Amos Diggory looked horrified.

"Mr. Crouch… not… not at all."

"If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!" shouted Mr. Crouch. "Where else would she have learned to conjure it?"

"She… she might've picked it up anywhere…"

"Precisely, Amos." said Mr. Weasley. "She might have picked it up anywhere… Winky?" He said kindly, turning to the elf, but she flinched as though he too was shouting at her. "Where exactly did you find Rose's wand?"

Winky was twisting the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers.

"I… I is finding it... finding it there, sir…" she whispered. "There… in the trees, sir."

"You see, Amos?" said Mr. Weasley. "Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Rose's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up."

"But then, she'd have been only a few feet away from the real culprit!" said Mr. Diggory impatiently. "Elf? Did you see anyone?" Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flickered from Mr. Diggory, to Ludo Bagman and onto Mr. Crouch. Then she gulped and said.

"I is seeing no one, sir… no one…"

"Amos." said Mr. Crouch curtly. "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her."

Mr. Diggory looked as though he didn't think much of this suggestion at all, but it was clear to Rose that Mr. Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him.

"You may rest assured that she will be punished." Mr. Crouch added coldly.

"M-m-master…" Winky stammered, looking up at Mr. Crouch, her eyes brimming with tears. "M-m-master, p-p-please…"

Mr. Crouch stared back, his face somehow sharpened, each line upon it more deeply etched. There was no pity in his gaze.

"Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have believed possible." He said slowly. "I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

"No!" shrieked Winky, prostrating herself at Mr. Crouch's feet. "No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!"

Rose knew that the only way to turn a house-elf free was to present it with proper garments. It was pitiful to see the way Winky clutched at her tea towel as she sobbed over Mr. Crouch's feet.

"But she was frightened!" Hermione burst out angrily, glaring at Mr. Crouch. "Your elf's scared of heights and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of their way!"

Mr. Crouch took a step backward, freeing himself from contact with the elf, whom he was surveying as though she were something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his over-shined shoes.

"I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me." he said coldly, looking over at Hermione. "I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master and to her master's reputation."

Winky was crying so hard that her sobs echoed around the clearing.

There was a very nasty silence, which was ended by Mr. Weasley, who said quietly.

"Well, I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections. Amos, that wand's told us all it can… if Rose could have it back, please…" Mr. Diggory handed Rose her wand and Rose pocketed it.

"Come on, you three." Mr. Weasley said quietly.

But Hermione didn't seem to want to move, her eyes were still upon the sobbing elf.

"Hermione!" Mr. Weasley said, more urgently.

She turned and followed Rose and Ron out of the clearing and off through the trees.

"What's going to happen to Winky?" said Hermione, the moment they had left the clearing.

"I don't know." said Mr. Weasley.

"The way they were treating her!" said Hermione furiously. "Mr. Diggory, calling her 'elf' all the time… and Mr. Crouch! He knows she didn't do it and he's still going to sack her! He didn't care how frightened she'd been, or how upset she was… it was like she wasn't even human!"

"Well, she's not." said Ron. Hermione rounded on him.

"That doesn't mean she hasn't got feelings, Ron. It's disgusting the way…"

"Hermione, I agree with you." said Mr. Weasley quickly, beckoning her on. "But now is not the time to discuss elf rights. I want to get back to the tent as fast as we can. What happened to the others?" "We lost them in the dark." said Ron. "Dad, why was everyone so uptight about that skull thing?"

"I'll explain everything back at the tent." said Mr. Weasley tensely.

But when they reached the edge of the wood, their progress was impeded.

A large crowd of frightened-looking witches and wizards was congregated there and when they saw Mr. Weasley coming toward them, many of them surged forward.

"What's going on in there?"

"Who conjured it?"

"Arthur… it's not… Him?"

"Of course it's not Him." said Mr. Weasley impatiently. "We don't know who it was, it looks like they Disapparated. Now excuse me, please, I want to get to bed."

He led Rose, Ron, and Hermione through the crowd and back into the campsite.

All was quiet now, there was no sign of the masked wizards, though several ruined tents were still smoking. Charlie's head was poking out of the boys' tent.

"Dad, what's going on?" he called through the dark. "Fred, George, and Ginny got back okay, but the others…"

"I've got them here." said Mr. Weasley, bending down and entering the tent.

Rose, Ron, and Hermione entered after him.

"Rose!" Two voices rang out and suddenly she was pulled into a hug.

She knew the familiar scent of rain and started to relax.

"I was so worried, the minute I figured out what was going on I tried to find you."

"I'm fine Ced."

Cedric let go of her and examined her. Rose noticed that George was standing right beside him a bit red in the cheeks. Cedric's eyes dropped down to her arm and his face whitened.

"You're not fine."

Rose looked down confused and her arm looked fine, of course it did, Malfoy had healed it.

"What are you…"

"Your other arm Rose!"

Cedric softly pulled it forward and she saw blue bruises blooming over her skin and you could clearly see the shape of hands in them.

The people in the tent gasped.

"Eh…"

Cedric looked her over and saw more bruises and even scratches. Wow, she looked worse than she felt.

"Bloody hell, Rose, what happened when we lost each other?" Ron muttered.

Mr. Weasley rushed forward and touched it lightly. Okay, now she could feel the pain and she suppressed a wince.

"Rose, why didn't you say anything?" Hermione shrieked.

"Because I didn't feel it until now…"

"Was it MALFOY?" Ron suddenly boomed.

"NO!" Rose snapped quickly. Malfoy didn't want them to know but she couldn't let them blame him either.

"We bumped into each other after…"

"Rose…" Mr. Weasley looked at her with worry. There was a fear in his eyes, a fear that might have come true if not for Malfoy…

"Can you please tell us what happened?" He asked calmly.

"I got separated from the rest because of a mass of people. Some shabby guy's saw my scar and wanted to take me to the masked men…"

Mr. Weasley's face got drained of blood.

"… They weren't being very careful about it."

Rose decided to keep the sickening hunger to herself, they didn't need to know…

"I put two and two together and realized the masked men must be Voldemort's followers…" Everyone winced at the name. "So, I struggled and got away, while running back to the woods I came across Malfoy. That's when you found me."

"You got away without a wand?"

"There was a loud bang in the sky and I took the opportunity to kick the one holding me where it hurts most so he'd release me." Rose shrugged. "It worked." She didn't want to many people knowing about her magic, Ron and Hermione glanced at each other knowingly.

Mr. Weasley smiled lightly.

"You're really something Rose. Come closer so I can heal you."

Mr. Weasley started healing her while muttering 'Episkey' multiple times.

"Didn't… didn't you have an... euhm… episode?" Hermione said hesitantly.

Rose blinked slowly at that and realized she indeed didn't had a panick attack.

"No… It's probably because nothing about that situation made me think about Marge. Too different and too much magic I guess…"

Bill was sitting at the small kitchen table, holding a bedsheet to his arm, which was bleeding profusely. Charlie had a large rip in his shirt and Percy was sporting a bloody nose.

Fred, George, and Ginny looked unhurt, though shaken.

"Why so worried about me? Look at you guy's, you're off way worse. Heal them first."

"We were hurt with magic, your injuries are easier."

"Did you get them, Dad?" said Bill sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"

"No." said Mr. Weasley in between chants. "We found Barry Crouch's elf holding Rose's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conured the Mark."

"What?" said Bill, Charlie, and Percy together.

"Rose's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr. Crouch's elf." said Percy, sounding thunderstruck.

With some assistance from Rose, Ron, and Hermione, Mr. Weasley explained what had happened in the woods. When they had finished their story, Percy swelled indignantly.

"Well, Mr. Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" he said. "Running away when he'd expressly told her not to… embarrassing him in front of the whole Ministry… how would that have looked, if she'd been brought up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control…"

"She didn't do anything… she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Hermione snapped at Percy, who looked very taken aback.

Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy… better, indeed, than any of the others.

"Hermione, a wizard in Mr. Crouch's position can't afford a house-elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" said Percy pompously, recovering himself.

"She didn't run amok!" shouted Hermione. "She just picked it up off the ground!"

"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" said Ron impatiently. "It wasn't hurting anyone… Why's it such a big deal?"

"I told you, it's You-Know-Who's symbol, Ron." said Hermione, before anyone else could answer. "I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

"And it hasn't been seen for thirteen years." said Mr. Weasley quietly. "Of course people panicked… it was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."

"I don't get it." said Ron, frowning. "I mean… it's still only a shape in the sky…"

"Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed." said Mr. Weasley. "The terror it inspired... you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house and knowing what you're about to find inside…" Mr. Weasley winced. "Everyone's worst fear… the very worst…"

There was silence for a moment. Then Bill, removing the sheet from his arm to check on his cut, said. "Well, it didn't help us tonight, whoever conjured it. It scared the Death Eaters away the moment they saw it. They all Disapparated before we'd got near enough to unmask any of them. We caught the Robertses before they hit the ground, though. They're having their memories modified right now."

"Death Eaters?" said Rose. "What are Death Eaters?"

"It's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves." said Bill. "I think we saw what's left of them tonight… the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."

"We can't prove it was them, Bill." said Mr. Weasley. "Though it probably was." he added hopelessly. "Yeah, I bet it was!" said Ron suddenly. "Dad, we met Draco Malfoy in the woods and he as good as told us his dad was one of those nutters in masks! And we all know the Malfoys were right in with You-Know-Who!"

"But what were Voldemort's supporters…" Rose began. Everybody flinched.

"Sorry." said Rose quickly. "What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"

"The point?" said Mr. Weasley with a hollow laugh. "Rose, that's their idea of fun. Half the Muggle killings back when You-Know-Who was in power were done for fun. I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them." he finished disgustedly.

"But if they were the Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" said Ron. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Use your brains, Ron." said Bill. "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power and told all sorts of lies about him forcing them to kill and torture people. I bet they'd be even more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives... I don't reckon he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"

"So… whoever conjured the Dark Mark…" said Hermione slowly. "Were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione." said Mr. Weasley. "But I'll tell you this… it was only the Death Eaters who ever knew how to conjure it. I'd be very surprised if the person who did it hadn't been a Death Eater once, even if they're not now... Listen, it's very late, and if your mother hears what's happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours sleep and then try and get an early Portkey out of here."

Cedric hadn't said much during the whole conversation, he had been staring at how Mr. Weasley was healing Rose.

"There, all done. Does it hurt anywhere else?"

"No, thank you Mr. Weasley."

"I should get going as well. My father will be looking for me." Cedric said.

"I'll walk with you."

Hermione and Ginny followed them outside, but this time they entered the girls tent immediately.

Rose turned towards Cedric to say goodbye and suddenly she got pulled into his arms and his lips were on hers.

Rose could feel a sense of desperation and relief through the kiss. Cedric pulled her even closer and their chests were pressed together.

It lasted longer that their goodbye kisses usually do and when Cedric pulled back Rose was sure she was as red as a tomato.

"Why do you insist on getting yourself in danger without me?" Cedric muttered.

"I don't do it on purpose." Rose replied.

"I know, but… Do you have any idea what I was going through? You-Know-Who's followers here, if they had gotten their hands on you…"

Cedric shuddered and pulled her close once again.

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, I just want you safe. That's all."

"Cedric…" Rose hesitated but decided to tell him anyway, he needed to hear it. "You know I probably won't be?"

Cedric stared at her.

"Voldemort is coming back, it might not be this week, this month or even this year, but he is coming back. He's not dead. And the moment he does, you know he's coming for me, right? I'm 'The-Girl-Who-Lived'."

"So, what?"

Rose sighed.

"I'm the one who did him in. Even if neither me or him know how. It's not even about the fact that 'I' could do it, it's about the fact that someone did him in. It's a weakness and it give people hope. And when he comes back, the only thing he can do to make people fear him again… is…"

"Killing you…" Cedric finished, finally understanding. "Who told you this?"

"I realized it myself the moment I accepted the high probability of him coming back."

Rose whispered.

"So, you see, I'll never be safe, not until he's dead."

"I'll stand by you." Cedric said. "If you have to run, I'll run with you, if you hide, I'll hide with you, if you decide to confront him, well I'll be standing right next to you. I promise you this, Rose."

Cedric said this with a fire in his eyes.

That fire warmed Rose to the core and while watching him she realized something, a truth she had to bite back, before she blurted it out.

She loved him. She wasn't simply in love anymore, she loved him with every fiber in her body, and she had no doubt on her mind that he would do those things he just promised. And somehow, her hard future suddenly looked a lot brighter.


	10. Chapter 10: Mayhem at the Ministry

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN - MAYHEM AT THE MINISTRY

Mr. Weasley woke them after only a few hours sleep.

He used magic to pack up the tents and they left the campsite as quickly as possible, passing Mr. Roberts at the door of his cottage. Mr. Roberts had a strange, dazed look about him, and he waved them off with a vague.

"Merry Christmas."

"He'll be all right." said Mr. Weasley quietly as they marched off onto the moor. "Sometimes, when a person's memory's modified, it makes him a bit disorientated for a while...and that was a big thing they had to make him forget."

They heard urgent voices as they approached the spot where the Portkeys lay and when they reached it, they found a great number of witches and wizards gathered around Basil, the keeper of the Portkeys, all clamoring to get away from the campsite as quickly as possible. Mr. Weasley had a hurried discussion with Basil, they joined the queue and were able to take an old rubber tire back to Stoatshead Hill before the sun had really risen. The Diggory's weren't there yet and they didn't wait for them.

They walked back through Ottery St. Catchpole and up the damp lane toward the Burrow in the dawn light, talking very little because they were so exhausted and thinking longingly of their breakfast.

As they rounded the corner and the Burrow came into view, a cry echoed along the lane.

"Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness!" Mrs. Weasley, who had evidently been waiting for them in the front yard, came running toward them, still wearing her bedroom slippers, her face pale and strained, a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her hand.

"Arthur… I've been so worried… so worried…" She flung her arms around Mr. Weasley's neck and the Daily Prophet fell out of her limp hand onto the ground.

Looking down, Rose saw the headline:

SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP

Complete with a twinkling black-and-white photograph of the Dark Mark over the treetops.

"You're all right." Mrs. Weasley muttered distractedly, releasing Mr. Weasley and staring around at them all with red eyes.

"You're alive… Oh boys…" And to everybody's surprise, she seized Fred and George and pulled them both into such a tight hug that their heads banged together.

"Ouch! Mum… you're strangling us…"

"I shouted at you before you left!" Mrs. Weasley said, starting to sob. "It's all I've been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had got you and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn't get enough OW.L.s? Oh Fred… George…"

"Come on, now, Molly, we're all perfectly okay." said Mr. Weasley soothingly, prising her off the twins and leading her back toward the house.

"Bill." He added in an undertone. "Pick up that paper, I want to see what it says…"

When they were all crammed into the tiny kitchen and Rose had made Mrs. Weasley a cup of very strong tea, into which Mr. Weasley insisted on pouring a shot of Ogdens Old Firewhiskey, Bill handed his father the newspaper.

Mr. Weasley scanned the front page while Percy looked over his shoulder.

"I knew it." said Mr. Weasley heavily. "Ministry blunders… culprits not apprehended… lax security… Dark wizards running unchecked... national disgrace... Who wrote this? Ah… of course… Rita Skeeter."

"That woman's got it in for the Ministry of Magic!" said Percy furiously. "Last week she was saying we're wasting our time quibbling about cauldron thickness, when we should be stamping out vampires! As if it wasn't specifically stated in paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans…"

"Do us a favor, Perce." said Bill, yawning. "And shut up."

"I'm mentioned." said Mr. Weasley, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he reached the bottom of the Daily Prophet article.

"Where?" spluttered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. "If I'd seen that, I'd have known you were alive!"

"Not by name." said Mr. Weasley. "Listen to this: 'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but reflising to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen.' Oh really." said Mr. Weasley in exasperation, handing the paper to Percy.

"Nobody was hurt. What was I supposed to say? Rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods... well, there certainly will be rumors now she's printed that." He heaved a deep sigh.

"Molly, I'm going to have to go into the office, this is going to take some smoothing over."

"I'll come with you, Father." said Percy importantly. "Mr. Crouch will need all hands on deck. And I can give him my cauldron report in person."

He bustled out of the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley looked most upset.

"Arthur, you're supposed to be on holiday! This hasn't got anything to do with your office, surely they can handle this without you?"

"I've got to go, Molly." said Mr. Weasley. "I've made things worse. I'll just change into my robes and I'll be off…"

"Mrs. Weasley." said Rose suddenly, unable to contain herself. "Hedwig hasn't arrived with a letter for me, has she?"

"Hedwig, dear?" said Mrs. Weasley distractedly. "No... no, there hasn't been any post at all."

Ron and Hermione looked curiously at Rose.

With a meaningful look at both of them she said;

"All right if I go and dump my stuff in Ginny's room?"

"Yeah… think I will dump mine in my room too." said Ron at once. "Hermione?"

"Yes." she said quickly, and the three of them marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"What's up, Rose?" said Ron, the moment they had closed the door of the attic room behind them. "There's something I haven't told you." Rose said. "On the morning of my birthday, I woke up with my scar hurting again."

"What?" Both exclaimed.

"But last time that happened was when he was standing in front of you…" Ron muttered with a white face.

"I fairly certain he couldn't have been here but I was dreaming about him... him and Peter… you know, Wormtail. I can't remember all of it now, but they were plotting to kill... someone." She had teetered for a moment on the verge of saying 'me', but couldn't bring herself to make Hermione look any more horrified than she already did.

"It was only a dream." said Ron bracingly. "Just a nightmare."

"Yeah, but was it, though?" said Rose, turning to look out of the window at the brightening sky. "It's weird, isn't it? My scar hurts, and three days later the Death Eaters are on the march and Voldemort's sign's up in the sky again."

"Don't… say… his… name!" Ron hissed through gritted teeth.

"And remember what Professor Trelawney said?" Rose went on, ignoring Ron. "At the end of last year?" Professor Trelawney was their Divination teacher at Hogwarts.

Hermione's terrified look vanished as she let out a derisive snort.

"Oh Rose, you aren't going to pay attention to anything that old fraud says?"

"You weren't there." said Rose. "You didn't hear her. This time was different. I told you, she went into a trance… a real one. And she said the Dark Lord would rise again... greater and more terrible than ever before... and he'd manage it because his servant was going to go back to him... and that night Wormtail escaped. Don't forget, Dumbledore told me last year that he's likely to come back at some point, is it so far-fetched that he is taking steps to do that now?"

There was a silence in which Ron fidgeted absentmindedly with a hole in his Chudley Cannons bedspread.

"Why were you asking if Hedwig had come, Rose?" Hermione asked. "Are you expecting a letter?"

"I told Sirius about my scar." said Rose, shrugging. "I'm waiting for his answer."

"Good thinking!" said Ron, his expression clearing. "I bet Sirius'll know what to do!"

"I hoped he'd get back to me quickly." said Rose.

"But we don't know where Sirius is... he could be in Africa or somewhere, couldn't he?" said Hermione reasonably. "Hedwig's not going to manage that journey in a few days."

"Yeah, I know." said Rose, but there was a leaden feeling in her stomach as she looked out of the window at the Hedwig-free sky.

"Come and have a game of Quidditch in the orchard, Rose." said Ron. "Come on… three on three, Bill and Charlie and Fred and George will play... You can try out the Wronski Feint..."

"Ron." said Hermione, in an I-don't-think-you're-being-very-sensitive sort of voice. "Rose doesn't want to play Quidditch right now... She's worried and she's tired... We all need to go to bed..."

"Yeah, I want to play Quidditch." said Rose suddenly. "Hang on, I'll get my Firebolt."

Hermione left the room, muttering something that sounded very much like 'Idiots'.

Neither Mr. Weasley nor Percy was at home much over the following week.

Both left the house each morning before the rest of the family got up and returned well after dinner every night.

"It's been an absolute uproar." Percy told them importantly the Sunday evening before they were due to return to Hogwarts. "I've been putting out fires all week. People keep sending Howlers and of course, if you don't open a Howler straight away, it explodes. Scorch marks all over my desk and my best quill reduced to cinders."

"Why are they all sending Howlers?" asked Ginny, who was mending her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi with Spellotape on the rug in front of the living room fire.

"Complaining about security at the World Cup." said Percy. "They want compensation for their ruined property. Mundungus Fletcher's put in a claim for a twelve-bedroomed tent with en-suite Jacuzzi, but I've got his number. I know for a fact he was sleeping under a cloak propped on sticks." Mrs. Weasley glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner.

Rose liked this clock. It was completely useless if you wanted to know the time, but otherwise very informative.

It had nine golden hands and each of them was engraved with one of the Weasley family's names. There were no numerals around the face, but descriptions of where each family member might be. 'Home', 'school' and 'work' were there, but there was also 'traveling', 'lost', 'hospital', 'prison' and in the position where the number twelve would be on a normal clock, 'mortal peril'.

Eight of the hands were currently pointing to the 'home' position but Mr. Weasley's, which was the longest, was still pointing to 'work'. Mrs. Weasley sighed.

"Your father hasn't had to go into the office on weekends since the days of You- Know-Who." she said. "They're working him far too hard. His dinner's going to be ruined if he doesn't come home soon."

"Well, Father feels he's got to make up for his mistake at the match, doesn't he?" said Percy. "If truth be told, he was a tad unwise to make a public statement without clearing it with his Head of Department first…"

"Don't you dare blame your father for what that wretched Skeeter woman wrote!" said Mrs. Weasley, flaring up at once.

"If Dad hadn't said anything, old Rita would just have said it was disgraceful that nobody from the Ministry had commented." said Bill, who was playing chess with Ron. "Rita Skeeter never makes anyone look good. Remember, she interviewed all the Gringotts' Charm Breakers once and called me 'a long-haired pillock'?"

"Well, it is a bit long, dear." said Mrs. Weasley gently. "If you'd just let me…"

"No, Mum."

"Hey, Mrs. Weasley?" Rose suddenly got an idea, her hair was way too long and they weren't going to Diagon Alley this year. She needed a haircut.

"Yes, dear?"

"Would you mind cutting mine? I was going to do it in Diagon Alley, but we didn't get to go…"

Mrs. Weasley's face brightened.

"Of course my dear. Come and sit."

Rose installed herself and told Mrs. Weasley she wanted the length to be a bit above her elbows.

While Mrs. Weasley was cutting her hair, rain lashed against the living room window.

Hermione was immersed in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, copies of which Mrs. Weasley had bought for her, Rose and Ron in Diagon Alley.

Charlie was darning a fireproof balaclava.

Fred and George were sitting in a far corner, quills out, talking in whispers, their heads bent over a piece of parchment.

"What are you two up to?" said Mrs. Weasley sharply, her eyes on the twins.

"Homework." said Fred vaguely.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're still on holiday." said Mrs. Weasley.

"Yeah, we've left it a bit late." said George.

"You're not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you?" said Mrs. Weasley shrewdly. "You wouldn't be thinking of restarting Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, by any chance?"

"Now, Mum." said Fred, looking up at her, a pained look on his face. "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow and George and I died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?"

Everyone laughed, even Mrs. Weasley.

"There you go dear."

Mrs. Weasley handed Rose a mirror. The cut was the same, only her hair was considerately shorter.

She went through it with her hand and it was a lot more manageable.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley."

"It's nothing dear."

Rose grabbed her copy of the same book Hermion was reading and started reading as well.

"Oh, your father's coming!" Mrs. Weasley said after a while, looking up at the clock again.

Mr. Weasley's hand had suddenly spun from 'work' to 'traveling', a second later it had shuddered to a halt on 'home' with the others and they heard him calling from the kitchen.

"Coming, Arthur!" called Mrs. Weasley, hurrying out of the room.

A few moments later, Mr. Weasley came into the warm living room carrying his dinner on a tray. He looked completely exhausted.

"Well, the fat's really in the fire now." he told Mrs. Weasley as he sat down in an armchair near the hearth and toyed unenthusiastically with his somewhat shriveled cauliflower.

"Rita Skeeter's been ferreting around all week, looking for more Ministry mess-ups to report. And now she's found out about poor old Bertha going missing, so that'll be the headline in the Prophet tomorrow. I told Bagman he should have sent someone to look for her ages ago."

"Mr. Crouch has been saying it for weeks and weeks." said Percy swiftly.

"Crouch is very lucky Rita hasn't found out about Winky." said Mr. Weasley irritably. "There'd be a week's worth of headlines in his house-elf being caught holding the wand that conjured the Dark Mark."

"I thought we were all agreed that that elf, while irresponsible, did not conjure the Mark?" said Percy hotly.

"If you ask me, Mr. Crouch is very lucky no one at the Daily Prophet knows how mean he is to elves!" said Hermione angrily.

"Now look here, Hermione!" said Percy. "A high-ranking Ministry official like Mr. Crouch deserves unswerving obedience from his servants…"

"His slave, you mean!" said Hermione, her voice rising passionately. "Because he didn't pay Winky, did he?"

"I think you'd all better go upstairs and check that you've packed properly!" said Mrs. Weasley, breaking up the argument. "Come on now, all of you…"

Rose closed her book and went back upstairs with Ron and Hermione.

The rain sounded even louder at the top of the house, accompanied by loud whistlings and moans from the wind, not to mention sporadic howls from the ghoul who lived in the attic.

Pigwidgeon began twittering and zooming around his cage when they entered.

The sight of the half-packed trunks seemed to have sent him into a frenzy of excitement.

"Bung him some Owl Treats." said Ron, throwing a packet across to Rose. "It might shut him up." Rose poked a few Owl Treats through the bars of Pigwidgeon's cage.

"I'm going to check if Hedwig is back."

Rose left Ron's room and went to Ginny's followed by Ron and Hermione.

The first she saw was Hedwig's empty cage.

"It's been over a week." Rose said, looking at Hedwig's deserted perch. "Ron, you don't reckon Sirius has been caught, do you?"

"Nah, it would've been in the Daily Prophet." said Ron. "The Ministry would want to show they'd caught someone, wouldn't they?"

"Yeah, I suppose…"

"Look, here's the stuff Mum got for you in Diagon Alley. And she's got some gold out of your vault for you... and she's washed all your socks."

He heaved a pile of parcels onto Rose's camp bed and dropped the money bag and a load of socks next to it.

Rose started unwrapping the shopping. While Hermione did the same with hers and Ron went back to his room.

Apart from her books, which she had received downstairs, she had a handful of new quills, a dozen rolls of parchment, and refills for her potion-making kit… she had been running low on spine of lionfish and essence of belladonna.

She was just piling underwear into her cauldron when Ron made a loud noise of disgust from his room.

"What is that supposed to be?!"

Rose went to Ron's room.

He was holding up something that looked to Rose like a long, maroon velvet dress. It had a moldy-looking lace frill at the collar and matching lace cuffs.

There was a knock on the door and Mrs. Weasley entered, carrying an armful of freshly laundered Hogwarts robes.

"Here you are." She said, sorting them into two piles. "Now, mind you pack them properly so they don't crease."

"Mum, you've given me Ginny's new dress." said Ron, handing it out to her.

"Of course I haven't." said Mrs. Weasley. "That's for you. Dress robes."

"What?" said Ron, looking horror-struck.

"Dress robes!" repeated Mrs. Weasley. "It says on your school list that you're supposed to have dress robes this year… robes for formal occasions."

"You've got to be kidding." said Ron in disbelief. "I'm not wearing that, no way."

"Everyone wears them, Ron!" said Mrs. Weasley crossly. "They're all like that! Your father's got some for smart parties!"

"I'll go starkers before I put that on." said Ron stubbornly.

"Don't be so silly." said Mrs. Weasley. "You've got to have dress robes, they're on your list! Rose, honey, I didn't buy yours yet, for girls it has to be a dress. I've got a catalogue here. You should look through it with Hermione. I'll take your measurements and let me know which one you want. I'll order it then."

Mrs. Weasley handed her a thick book and Rose started flipping through it.

Ron suddenly grabbed it when he saw a male dress robe.

"Well, these are okay!" said Ron angrily, looking at the catalogue. "Why couldn't I have some like that?"

"Because... well, I had to get yours secondhand and there wasn't a lot of choice!" said Mrs. Weasley, flushing.

Rose looked away. She would willingly have split all the money in her Gringotts vault with the Weasleys, but she knew they would never take it.

"I'm never wearing them." Ron was saying stubbornly. "Never."

"Fine!" snapped Mrs. Weasley. "Go naked. And, Rose, make sure you get a picture of him. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh."

She left the room, slamming the door behind her. There was a funny spluttering noise from behind them. Pigwidgeon was choking on an overlarge Owl Treat.

"Why is everything I own rubbish?" said Ron furiously, striding across the room to unstick Pigwidgeon's beak.

Rose's cheeks flushed and she muttered an excuse to retreat to Ginny's room, taking the clothes Mrs. Weasley brought with her.

"What was it?" Hermione asked while packing her trunk neatly.

"Euhm, apparently, we need dress robes this year. Ron didn't like his."

Rose didn't have to say much more for Hermione to understand.

"Oh." She refocused on her package. "Hey why don't we don't have any?" She continued, checking it again.

"We have to look through this catalogue, and she needs to measure us."

"Ooooh." Hermione said happily installing herself next to Rose, looking through the pictures.

After a while Rose's head was spinning.

"There's too many… I can't pick."

"Me neither, I'm hesitating between these two." Hermione pointed them out.

Both were made from floaty materials, one had a lot of ruffles and had a dip dye from pink to purple. The other one had less ruffles and was periwinkle blue.

"Definitively the blue one." Rose said.

"I was leaning more towards that one as well." Hermione nodded. "And you?"

Rose showed her two preferred dresses. One was red with a halter-top that was tightfitting until somewhere above the knees and then flowed out with glitters. The other was bottle green, strapless with a rather deep V-neck, flowed out at the hips and turned into a glittery gold at the end.

"Ooooh." Hermione said longingly.

Rose looked at the prices and saw she had picked out more expensive ones, and started hesitating.

"Maybe I should look again." Rose muttered.

"No! You should take the green one. It'll go so well with your hair. You'll be gorgeous."

"The price is…"

"Rose, you almost never buy stuff and if you buy something it's always to share. For this you can make an exception. No-one will know the price, only me, you and Mrs. Weasley."

"I don't know."

"Whatever you pick I'll tell Mrs. Weasley you want that one anyway!" Hermione said with a stern look on her face.

Rose had to laugh at how serious Hermione took this.

"Okay fine." Rose chuckled.

Mrs. Weasley knocked lightly on the door.

"You girls ready for the measurements? Did you pick your dresses?" She asked. Her lips still were a bit tight from the altercation with Ron.

Hermione grabbed hold of the catalogue before Rose could react.

"Rose wants this one." Hermione pointed out the green and gold dress.

"Oooh." Mrs. Weasley's face lit up. "Good choice Rose. You'll look stunning in that shade of green. Let's take the measurements for it, shall we?"

Hermione shot Rose a triumphant look and Rose had to bite back another laugh.

Mrs. Weasley tapped the catalogue with her wand and a measuring tape came out of it.

She gave the tape to Rose.

"Tap it with your wand and say the number of your order." Mrs. Weasley instructed.

Rose tapped it with her wand.

"Number 176, please."

The measuring tape sprung to life and began measuring on its own accord. Very similar like when Mr. Ollivander had done it to find her a wand. Only now Rose saw the measurement being filled in automatically on an order sheet.

When it was done, Hermione did the same. Rose flipped through the catalogue again and at the end she saw accessories. She wasn't that interested in the jewelry, she already knew what to wear. Cedric had given her enough.

She found some gold pumps she liked and then her eyes fell on wand holsters. She was getting kind of tired of having to put her wand in her pockets all the time, prone to lose it and she flipped through them.

"That's a good idea, dear." Mrs. Weasley suddenly said, she had been glancing over her shoulders.

"But you better buy them in Diagon Alley, in these catalogues they're too expensive."

"Oh."

"I can get them for you, if you like. They're adjustable." Mrs. Weasley suggested.

"Won't it be a bother to go back?" Rose asked.

"Not at all, it'll be much calmer after school starts. Which ones do you want?"

"One for the leg and one for the arm, please." When she's wearing a dress, she can't wear it on her arm.

"What are you buying?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Wand holsters."

"Oh that's a good idea."

"I'll get you the same ones." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Euhm… can you buy two pairs for the arm for me? It's… it's for when they break." Rose said hesitantly, thinking of Ron.

Mrs. Weasley looked at her with a smile. She wasn't fooling anyone.

"I will. Now order your shoes and finish packing."

They were finishing ordering the shoes when Ginny entered. Hermione and her looked at the catalogue together and giggled over the dresses.

Mrs. Weasley started to leave and turned to Rose.

"You're a good friend to Ron, Rose. I'm happy he met you and we got to get to know what a wonderful girl you are." Mrs. Weasley said with a smile and left the room.

* * *

We're nearing the point where I was at in AO3.

A little heads up that update won't be as frequent anymore I'll need time writing the chapters.

Don't worry I'll try my best to update at a weekly basis. :)

I'll let you know when the upload frequency changes.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always don't hesitate to let me know what you think.

XXX D.


	11. Chapter 11: Aboard the Hogwart Express

Chapter Eleven

ABOARD THE HOGWART EXPRESS

There was a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air when Rose awoke next morning.

Heavy rain was still splattering against the window as she got dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, they would change into their school robes on the Hogwarts Express.

She, Ron, Fred, and George had just reached the first-floor landing on their way down to breakfast, when Mrs. Weasley appeared at the foot of the stairs, looking harassed.

"Arthur!" she called up the staircase. "Arthur! Urgent message from the Ministry!"

Rose flattened herself against the wall as Mr. Weasley came clattering past with his robes on back-to-front and hurtled out of sight. When Rose and the others entered the kitchen, they saw Mrs. Weasley rummaging anxiously in the drawers…

"I've got a quill here somewhere!" And Mr. Weasley bending over the fire, talking to… Rose shut her eyes hard and opened them again to make sure that they were working properly.

Amos Diggory's head was sitting in the middle of the flames like a large, bearded egg. It was talking very fast, completely unperturbed by the sparks flying around it and the flames licking its ears.

"…Muggle neighbors heard bangs and shouting, so they went and called those what-d'you-call-'ems - please-men. Arthur, you've got to get over there…"

"Here!" said Mrs. Weasley breathlessly, pushing a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a crumpled quill into Mr. Weasley's hands.

"…it's a real stroke of luck I heard about it." said Mr. Diggory's head. "I had to come into the office early to send a couple of owls and I found the Improper Use of Magic lot all setting off… if Rita Skeeter gets hold of this one, Arthur…"

"What does Mad-Eye say happened?" asked Mr. Weasley, unscrewing the ink bottle, loading up his quill, and preparing to take notes. Mr. Diggory's head rolled its eyes.

"Says he heard an intruder in his yard. Says he was creeping toward the house, but was ambushed by his dustbins."

"What did the dustbins do?" asked Mr. Weasley, scribbling frantically.

"Made one hell of a noise and fired rubbish everywhere, as far as I can tell." said Mr. Diggory. "Apparently one of them was still rocketing around when the pleasemen turned up…" Mr. Weasley groaned.

"And what about the intruder?"

"Arthur, you know Mad-Eye." said Mr. Diggory's head, rolling its eyes again. "Someone creeping into his yard in the dead of night? More likely there's a very shell-shocked cat wandering around somewhere, covered in potato peelings. But if the Improper Use of Magic lot get their hands on Mad-Eye, he's had it… think of his record… we've got to get him off on a minor charge, something in your department… what are exploding dustbins worth?"

"Might be a caution." said Mr. Weasley, still writing very fast, his brow furrowed. "Mad-Eye didn't use his wand? He didn't actually attack anyone?"

"I'll bet he leapt out of bed and started jinxing everything he could reach through the window." said Mr. Diggory. "But they'll have a job proving it, there aren't any casualties."

"All right, I'm off." Mr. Weasley said and he stuffed the parchment with his notes on it into his pocket and dashed out of the kitchen again.

Mr. Diggory's head looked around at Mrs. Weasley.

"Sorry about this, Molly." it said, more calmly. "Bothering you so early and everything...but Arthur's the only one who can get Mad-Eye off and Mad-Eye's supposed to be starting his new job today. Why he had to choose last night…"

"Never mind, Amos." said Mrs. Weasley.

Mr. Diggory caught eye with Rose.

"How are you doing Rose? Cedric didn't come yesterday because we wanted him home for the last day."

"He wrote me about it. It's perfectly normal." Rose answered.

"Next summer you can stay longer if you want. We won't be that busy."

Rose smiled brightly at him.

"Thank you, Mr. Diggory."

"Well, I'm off."

"Sure, you won't have a bit of toast or anything before you go?" Mrs. Weasley suggested.

"Oh, go on, then." said Mr. Diggory.

Mrs. Weasley took a piece of buttered toast from a stack on the kitchen table, put it into the fire tongs and transferred it into Mr. Diggory's mouth.

"Fanks." he said in a muffled voice and then, with a small pop, vanished.

Rose could hear Mr. Weasley calling hurried good-byes to Bill, Charlie, Percy and the girls.

Within five minutes, he was back in the kitchen, his robes on the right way now, dragging a comb through his hair.

"I'd better hurry… you have a good term, kids." said Mr. Weasley to Rose, Ron, and the twins, fastening a cloak over his shoulders and preparing to Disapparate.

"Molly, are you going to be all right taking the kids to King's Cross?"

"Of course, I will." she said. "You just look after Mad-Eye, we'll be fine."

Mr. Weasley nodded. He turned to Rose.

"Rose if you need anything you write us, okay?" Mr. Weasley added. The look in his eye suggested to Rose he meant it and he was also talking about her episodes.

"I will, Mr. Weasley."

As Mr. Weasley vanished, Bill and Charlie entered the kitchen.

"Did someone say Mad-Eye?" Bill asked. "What's he been up to now."

"He says someone tried to break into his house last night." said Mrs. Weasley.

"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George thoughtfully, spreading marmalade on his toast. "Isn't he that nutter…"

"Your father thinks very highly of Mad-Eye Moody." said Mrs. Weasley sternly.

"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred quietly as Mrs. Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather…"

"Moody was a great wizard in his time." said Bill.

"He's an old friend of Dumbledore's, isn't he?" said Charlie.

"Dumbledore's not what you'd call normal, though, is he?" said Fred. "I mean, I know he's a genius and everything..."

"Who is Mad-Eye?" asked Rose.

"He's retired, used to work at the Ministry." said Charlie. "I met him once when Dad took me into work with him. He was an Auror… one of the best… a Dark wizard catcher." he added, seeing Rose's blank look.

"Half the cells in Azkaban are full because of him. He made himself loads of enemies, though… the families of people he caught, mainly… and I heard he's been getting really paranoid in his old age. Doesn't trust anyone anymore. Sees Dark wizards everywhere."

Bill and Charlie decided to come and see everyone off at King's Cross station, but Percy, apologizing most profusely, said that he really needed to get to work.

"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment." he told them. "Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me."

"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" said George seriously. "I reckon he'll know your name soon."

Mrs. Weasley had braved the telephone in the village post office to order three ordinary Muggle taxis to take them into London.

"Arthur tried to borrow Ministry cars for us." Mrs. Weasley whispered to Rose as they stood in the rain-washed yard, watching the taxi drivers heaving six heavy Hogwarts trunks into their cars.

"But there weren't any to spare… Oh dear, they don't look happy, do they?"

Rose didn't like to tell Mrs. Weasley that Muggle taxi drivers rarely transported overexcited owls and Pigwidgeon was making an earsplitting racket.

Nor did it help that a number of Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks went off unexpectedly when Fred's trunk sprang open, causing the driver carrying it to yell with fright and pain as Crookshanks clawed his way up the man's leg.

The journey was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that they were jammed in the back of the taxis with their trunks. Crookshanks took quite a while to recover from the fireworks and by the time they entered London, Rose, Ron and Hermione were all severely scratched.

They were very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever and they got soaked carrying their trunks across the busy road and into the station.

Rose was used to getting onto platform nine and three-quarters by now. It was a simple matter of walking straight through the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten.

The only tricky part was doing this in an unobtrusive way, so as to avoid attracting Muggle attention. They did it in groups today, Rose, Ron and Hermione the most conspicuous, since they were accompanied by Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks went first.

They leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly and slid sideways through it… and as they did so, platform nine and three-quarters materialized in front of them.

The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many Hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts.

Pigwidgeon became noisier than ever in response to the hooting of many owls through the mist. Rose, Ron, and Hermione set off to find seats and were soon stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway along the train.

They then hopped back down onto the platform to say good-bye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill and Charlie.

"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think." said Charlie, grinning, as he hugged Ginny good-bye.

"Why?" said Fred keenly.

"You'll see," said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it… it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it, after all."

"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year." said Bill, hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.

"Why?" said George impatiently.

"You're going to have an interesting year." said Bill, his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it."

"A bit of what?" said Ron.

But at that moment, the whistle blew and Mrs. Weasley chivvied them toward the train doors. "Thanks for having us to stay, Mrs. Weasley." said Hermione as they climbed on board, closed the door and leaned out of the window to talk to her.

"Yes, thank you for everything, Mrs. Weasley." said Rose.

"Oh, it was my pleasure, dears." said Mrs. Weasley. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but... well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with… one thing and another."

"Mum!" said Ron irritably. "What d'you three know that we don't?"

"You'll find out this evening, I expect." said Mrs. Weasley, smiling. "It's going to be very exciting - mind you, I'm very glad they've changed the rules…"

"What rules?" said Rose, Ron, Fred, and George together.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you… Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?" The pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie sped away from them. "What rules are they changing?"

But Mrs. Weasley only smiled and waved. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill and Charlie had Disapparated.

Rose, Ron, and Hermione went back to their compartment. The thick rain splattering the windows made it very difficult to see out of them.

Ron undid his trunk, pulled out his maroon dress robes and flung them over Pigwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting.

"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at Hogwarts." he said grumpily, sitting down next to Rose. "At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what…"

"Shh!" Hermione whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. Rose and Ron listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door.

"…Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore… the man's such a Mudblood-lover and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do…"

Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice.

"So, he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" said Rose, the name seemed familiar, but she didn't remember the details.

"Yes." said Hermione sniffily. "And it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"I think I've heard of it." said Ron vaguely.

"Where is it? What country?"

"Well, nobody knows, do they?" said Hermione, raising her eyebrows.

"Er… why not?" said Rose.

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets." said Hermione matter-of-factly.

"Come off it." said Ron, starting to laugh. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts… how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden." said Hermione, in surprise. "Everyone knows that… well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."

"Just you, then," said Ron.

"Hey! I knew that too." Rose said.

"Okay, just you two then… So go on… how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?"

"It's bewitched." said Rose. "If a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a moldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying 'DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE'."

"So Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outsider too?"

"Maybe." said Hermione, shrugging. "Or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable…"

"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?"

"Er... if you say so." said Ron.

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north." said Hermione thoughtfully. "Somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."

"Ah, think of the possibilities." said Ron dreamily. "It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident... Shame his mother likes him…"

The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday.

The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor and Rose bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share. Several of their friends looked in on them as the afternoon progressed, including Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom, a round-faced, extremely forgetful boy who had been brought up by his formidable witch of a grandmother.

Seamus was still wearing his Ireland rosette. Some of its magic seemed to be wearing off now, it was still squeaking 'Troy - Mullet - Moran!' but in a very feeble and exhausted sort of way.

After half an hour or so, Hermione, growing tired of the endless Quidditch talk, buried herself once more in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 and started trying to learn a Summoning Charm.

Neville listened jealously to the others' conversation as they relived the Cup match.

"Gran didn't want to go." he said miserably. "Wouldn't buy tickets. It sounded amazing though."

"It was." said Ron. "Look at this, Neville... He rummaged in his trunk up in the luggage rack and pulled out the miniature figure of Viktor Krum.

"Oh wow." said Neville enviously as Ron tipped Krum onto his pudgy hand.

"We saw him right up close, as well." said Ron. "We were in the Top Box…"

"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley." Draco Malfoy had appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood Crabbe and Goyle, his enormous, thuggish cronies, both of whom appeared to have grown at least a foot during the summer.

Evidently, they had overheard the conversation through the compartment door, which Dean and Seamus had left ajar.

"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy." said Rose coolly.

"Weasley… what is that?" said Malfoy, pointing at Pigwidgeon's cage.

A sleeve of Ron's dress robes was dangling from it, swaying with the motion of the train, the moldy lace cuff very obvious.

Ron made to stuff the robes out of sight, but Malfoy was too quick for him, he seized the sleeve and pulled.

"Look at this!" said Malfoy in ecstasy, holding up Ron's robes and showing Crabbe and Goyle.

"Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean… they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety…"

"Eat dung, Malfoy!" said Ron, the same color as the dress robes as he snatched them back out of Malfoy's grip. Malfoy howled with derisive laughter, Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly.

"So... going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know... you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you won…"

"What are you talking about?" snapped Ron.

"Are you going to enter?" Malfoy repeated. "I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?"

"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy." said Hermione testily, over the top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.

A gleeful smile spread across Malfoy's pale face.

"Don't tell me you don't know?" he said delightedly. "You've got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don't even know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago… heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry... Maybe your father's too junior to know about it, Weasley… yes… they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of him…" Said Malfoy laughing once more.

"My father helped organize it and he didn't tell me anything either. But then again, my father doesn't break the confidentiality clause Ministry employees are subjected to. I wonder what would happen to your father if the minister finds out he broke it to tell his son?"

A familiar voice suddenly said.

Rose turned and saw Cedric standing in the hallway, a head bigger than the three Syltherins.

He had a stern look on his face.

Malfoy closed his mouth and shot Cedric a look of disgust, beckoned to Crabbe and Goyle, and the three of them disappeared.

Cedric stepped into the compartment and smiled at Rose.

Ron got to his feet and slammed the sliding compartment door so hard behind them that the glass shattered.

"Ron!" said Hermione reproachfully and she pulled out her wand, muttered.

"Reparo!" And the glass shards flew back into a single pane and back into the door.

"Well... making it look like he knows everything and we don't..." Ron snarled. "'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry.' Dad could've got a promotion any time... he just likes it where he is..."

"Of course, he does." said Hermione quietly.

"His father won't stay high up if he keeps spouting secrets like that to his son." Cedric said. "It wasn't too long ago that someone got fired for blabbing about it." Cedric sat down next to Rose, loosely laying an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron…" Hermione said.

"Him! Get to me!? As if!" said Ron, picking up one of the remaining Cauldron Cakes and squashing it into a pulp.

Ron's bad mood continued for the rest of the journey.

He didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes and was still glowering when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch-darkness of Hogsmeade station.

As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. Hermione bundled up Crookshanks in her cloak and Ron left his dress robes over Pigwidgeon as they left the train, heads bent and eyes narrowed against the downpour.

The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads.

"Hi, Hagrid!" Rose yelled, seeing a gigantic silhouette at the far end of the platform.

"All righ', Rosey?" Hagrid bellowed back, waving. "See yeh at the feast if we don' drown!"

First years traditionally reached Hogwarts Castle by sailing across the lake with Hagrid.

"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather." said Hermione fervently, shivering as they inched slowly along the dark platform with the rest of the crowd.

A hundred horseless carriages stood waiting for them outside the station. Rose, Ron, Hermione, Cedric and Neville climbed gratefully into one of them, the door shut with a snap and a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track toward Hogwarts Castle.

* * *

I hope you guy's enjoyed this chapter!

Let me know what you think.

XXX D.


	12. Chapter 12: The Triwizard Tournament

Chapter Twelve

THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

Through the gates, flanked with statues of winged boars and up the sweeping drive the carriages trundled, swaying dangerously in what was fast becoming a gale.

Leaning against the window, Rose could see Hogwarts coming nearer, its many lighted windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain.

She shivered and Cedric put an arm around her, his body heat warming her considerately.

Rose muttered a 'thanks' and made herself comfortable against him.

Lightning flashed across the sky as their carriage came to a halt before the great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps.

People who had occupied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Rose, Cedric, Ron, Hermione, and Neville jumped down from their carriage and dashed up the steps too, looking up only when they were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall, with its magnificent marble staircase.

"Blimey." said Ron, shaking his head and sending water everywhere. "If that keeps up the lake's going to overflow. I'm soak… ARRGH!"

A large, red, water-filled balloon had dropped from out of the ceiling onto Ron's head and exploded. Drenched and sputtering, Ron staggered sideways into Rose, just as a second water bomb dropped - narrowly missing Hermione, it burst at Rose's feet, sending a wave of cold water over her sneakers into her socks.

People all around them shrieked and started pushing one another in their efforts to get out of the line of fire. Cedric got most of the blows from the crowd since he was standing right behind her.

Rose looked up and saw, floating twenty feet above them, Peeves the Poltergeist, a little man in a bell-covered hat and orange bow tie, his wide, malicious face contorted with concentration as he took aim again.

"PEEVES!" yelled an angry voice. "Peeves, come down here at ONCE!" Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and head of Gryffindor House, had come dashing out of the Great Hall, she skidded on the wet floor and grabbed Hermione around the neck to stop herself from falling.

"Ouch… sorry, Miss Granger…"

"That's all right, Professor!" Hermione gasped, massaging her throat.

"Peeves, get down here NOW!" barked Professor McGonagall, straightening her pointed hat and glaring upward through her square-rimmed spectacles.

"Not doing nothing!" cackled Peeves, lobbing a water bomb at several fifth-year girls, who screamed and dived into the Great Hall. "Already wet, aren't they? Little squirts! Wheeeeeeeeee!"

And he aimed another bomb at a group of second years who had just arrived.

"I shall call the headmaster!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "I'm warning you, Peeves…" Peeves stuck out his tongue, threw the last of his water bombs into the air and zoomed off up the marble staircase, cackling insanely.

"Well, move along, then!" said Professor McGonagall sharply to the bedraggled crowd. "Into the Great Hall, come on!"

Rose, Cedric, Ron and Hermione slipped and slid across the entrance hall and through the double doors on the right, Ron muttering furiously under his breath as he pushed his sopping hair off his face.

The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with chattering students, at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. It was much warmer in here.

"So, I'm gonna go…"

Rose smiled up at Cedric.

"Okay, catch you tomorrow?"

"You know it."

Cedric leaned towards Rose and gave her a sweet kiss on the corner of her mouth. A lot more chaste than when they said goodbye at the Quidditch World Cup.

Rose, Ron, and Hermione walked past the Slytherins, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs, and sat down with the rest of the Gryffindors at the far side of the Hall, next to Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost.

Pearly white and semitransparent, Nick was dressed tonight in his usual doublet, but with a particularly large ruff, which served the dual purpose of looking extra-festive and insuring that his head didn't wobble too much on his partially severed neck.

"Good evening." he said, beaming at them.

"Says who?" said Rose, taking off her sneakers and emptying them of water. "Hope they hurry up with the Sorting. I'm starving."

The Sorting of the new students into Houses took place at the start of every school year, but by an unlucky combination of circumstances, Rose hadn't been present at one since her own. She was quite looking forward to it.

Just then, a highly excited, breathless voice called down the table.

"Hiya, Rose!"

It was Colin Creevey, a third year to whom Rose was something of a hero.

"Hi, Colin." said Rose warily.

"Rose, guess what? Guess what, Rose? My brother's starting! My brother Dennis!"

"That's great!" said Rose, trying to be friendly.

"He's really excited!" said Colin, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. "I just hope he's in Gryffindor! Keep your fingers crossed, eh, Rose?"

"Will do." said Rose. She turned back to Hermione, Ron and Nearly Headless Nick.

"Brothers and sisters usually go in the same Houses, don't they?" She said. She was judging by the Weasleys, all seven of whom had been put into Gryffindor.

"Oh no, not necessarily." said Hermione. "Parvati Patil's twin's in Ravenclaw and they're identical. You'd think they'd be together, wouldn't you?"

Rose looked up at the staff table. There seemed to be rather more empty seats there than usual. Hagrid, of course, was still fighting his way across the lake with the first years, Professor McGonagall was presumably supervising the drying of the entrance hall floor, but there was another empty chair too and Rose couldn't think who else was missing.

"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Hermione, who was also looking up at the teachers. They had never yet had a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had lasted more than three terms.

Rose's favorite by far had been Professor Lupin, who had resigned last year. She looked up and down the staff table. There was definitely no new face there.

"Maybe they couldn't get anyone!" said Hermione, looking anxious.

Rose scanned the table more carefully. Tiny little Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was sitting on a large pile of cushions beside Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, whose hat was askew over her flyaway gray hair.

She was talking to Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department.

On Professor Sinistra's other side was the sallow-faced, hook-nosed, greasy-haired Potions master, Snape.

Rose had a pretty strange relationship with the man. Almost everybody hates him, except the Slytherins, because he hates all the student except those of Slytherin, who he favors shamelessly.

Well until Rose arrived at least. The only Gryffindor he doesn't hate. That's what Rose's classmate say at least.

She liked him well enough, especially because of his connection to her mom. But since he almost had Sirius wrongfully convicted because of a childhood grudge, Rose didn't really know what she felt about him.

On Snape's other side was an empty seat, which Rose guessed was Professor McGonagall's. Next to it, and in the very center of the table, sat Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, his sweeping silver hair and beard shining in the candlelight, his magnificent deep green robes embroidered with many stars and moons. Another man Rose wasn't quite sure about.

Since she found out last year that he had meddled in her memories to hide the trauma that is aunt Marge, Rose had grown a little suspicious of him.

The tips of Dumbledore's long, thin fingers were together and he was resting his chin upon them, staring up at the ceiling through his half-moon spectacles as though lost in thought. Rose glanced up at the ceiling too. It was enchanted to look like the sky outside and she had never seen it look this stormy.

Black and purple clouds were swirling across it, and as another thunderclap sounded outside, a fork of lightning flashed across it.

"Oh, hurry up." Ron moaned, beside Rose. "I could eat a hippogriff."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the doors of the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall.

If Rose, Ron and Hermione were wet, it was nothing to how these first years looked. They appeared to have swum across the lake rather than sailed.

All of them were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school… all of them except the smallest of the lot, a boy with mousy hair, who was wrapped in what Rose recognized as Hagrid's moleskin overcoat.

The coat was so big for him that it looked as though he were draped in a furry black circus tent.

His small face protruded from over the collar, looking almost painfully excited.

When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's eye, gave a double thumbs-up and mouthed, 'I fell in the lake'!

He looked positively delighted about it.

Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and on top of it, an extremely old, dirty patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it. So did everyone else.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat broke into song:

A thousand years or more ago, When I was newly sewn,

There lived four wizards of renown,

Whose names are still well known:

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor, Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,

Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad, Shrewd Slytherin, from fin.

They shared a wish, a hope, a dream, They hatched a daring plan

To educate young sorcerers Thus Hogwarts School began.

Now each of these four founders Formed their own house, for each

Did value different virtues In the ones they had to teach.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were Prized far beyond the rest;

For Ravenclaw, the cleverest Would always be the best;

For Hufflepuff, hard workers were Most worthy of admission;

And power-hungry Slytherin Loved those of great ambition.

While still alive they did divide Their favorites from the throng,

Yet how to pick the worthy ones When they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way, He whipped me off his head

The founders put some brains in me So I could choose instead!

Now slip me snug about your ears, I've never yet been wrong,

I'll have a look inside your mind And tell where you belong!

The Great Hall rang with applause as the Sorting Hat finished.

"That's not the song it sang when it Sorted us." said Rose, clapping along with everyone else.

"Sings a different one every year." said Ron. "It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one."

Professor McGonagall was now unrolling a large scroll of parchment.

"When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool." She told the first years. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table.

"Ackerley, Stewart!" A boy walked forward, visibly trembling from head to foot, picked up the Sorting Hat, put it on, and sat down on the stool.

"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat. Stewart Ackerley took off the hat and hurried into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, where everyone was applauding him. Rose caught a glimpse of Cho, the Ravenclaw Seeker, cheering Stewart Ackerley as he sat down. Their eyes met and Cho shot her a vicious glance before turning her head towards her friends. That had Rose stunned for a moment. She hadn't been this hostile at the Quidditch World Cup.

"Baddock, Malcolm!"

"SLYTHERIN!" The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers, Rose could see Malfoy clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherins. Rose wondered whether Baddock knew that Slytherin House had turned out more Dark witches and wizards than any other.

Fred and George hissed Malcolm Baddock as he sat down.

"Branstone, Eleanor!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Eleanor was greated by cheering Hufflepuff, including Cedric. Their eyes met and Cedric winked at her. She gave him a bright smile in response.

"Cauldwell, Owen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Creevey, Dennis!"

Tiny Dennis Creevey staggered forward, tripping over Hagrid's moleskin, just as Hagrid himself sidled into the Hall through a door behind the teachers' table.

About twice as tall as a normal man and at least three times as broad, Hagrid, with his long, wild, tangled black hair and beard, looked slightly alarming… a misleading impression, for Rose, Ron and Hermione knew Hagrid to possess a very kind nature.

He winked at them as he sat down at the end of the staff table and watched Dennis Creevey putting on the Sorting Hat. The rip at the brim opened wide…

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted. Hagrid clapped along with the Gryffindors as Dennis Creevey, beaming widely, took off the hat, placed it back on the stool and hurried over to join his brother. "Colin, I fell in!" he said shrilly, throwing himself into an empty seat. "It was brilliant! And something in the water grabbed me and pushed me back in the boat!"

"Cool!" said Colin, just as excitedly. "It was probably the giant squid, Dennis!"

"Wow!" said Dennis, as though nobody in their wildest dreams could hope for more than being thrown into a storm-tossed, fathoms-deep lake, and pushed out of it again by a giant sea monster. "Dennis! Dennis! See that girl down there? The one with the long red hair? See her? Know who she is, Dennis?"

Rose looked away, staring very hard at the Sorting Hat, now Sorting Emma Dobbs.

The Sorting continued, boys and girls with varying degrees of fright on their faces moving one by one to the three-legged stool, the line dwindling slowly as Professor McGonagall passed the L's.

"Oh hurry up." Ron moaned, massaging his stomach.

"Now, Ron, the Sorting's much more important than food." said Nearly Headless Nick as 'Madley, Laura!' became a Hufflepuff.

"Course it is, if you're dead." snapped Ron.

"I do hope this year's batch of Gryffindors are up to scratch." said Nearly Headless Nick, applauding as 'McDonald, Natalie!' joined the Gryffindor table. "We don't want to break our winning streak, do we?"

Gryffindor had won the Inter-House Championship for the last three years in a row.

"Pritchard, Graham!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Quirke, Orla!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

And finally, with 'Whitby, Kevin!' ('HUFFLEPUFF!'), the Sorting ended.

Professor McGonagall picked up the hat and the stool and carried them away.

"About time." said Ron, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden plate. Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome.

"I have only two words to say to you." He told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall.

"Tuck in."

"Hear, hear!" said Rose and Ron loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes. Nearly Headless Nick watched mournfully as Rose, Ron and Hermione loaded their own plates.

"Aaah, 'at's be'er." said Ron, with his mouth full of mashed potato.

"You're lucky there's a feast at all tonight, you know." said Nearly Headless Nick. "There was trouble in the kitchens earlier."

"Why? Wha' 'appened?" said Rose, through a sizable chunk of steak.

"Peeves, of course." said Nearly Headless Nick, shaking his head, which wobbled dangerously. He pulled his ruff a little higher up on his neck. "The usual argument, you know. He wanted to attend the feast… well, it's quite out of the question, you know what he's like, utterly uncivilized, can't see a plate of food without throwing it. We held a ghost's council… the Fat Friar was all for giving him the chance, but most wisely, in my opinion, the Bloody Baron put his foot down."

The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, a gaunt and silent specter covered in silver bloodstains. He was the only person at Hogwarts who could really control Peeves.

"Yeah, we thought Peeves seemed hacked off about something." said Ron darkly.

"So, what did he do in the kitchens?" Rose asked.

"Oh, the usual." said Nearly Headless Nick, shrugging. "Wreaked havoc and mayhem. Pots and pans everywhere. Place swimming in soup. Terrified the house-elves out of their wits…"

Clang.

Hermione had knocked over her golden goblet. Pumpkin juice spread steadily over the tablecloth, staining several feet of white linen orange, but Hermione paid no attention.

"There are house-elves here?" she said, staring, horror-struck, at Nearly Headless Nick. "Here at Hogwarts?"

"Certainly." said Nearly Headless Nick, looking surprised at her reaction. "The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred."

"I've never seen one!" said Hermione.

Rose had, when Cedric had taken her to the kitchens last year. But she didn't deem it wise to speak up about it. She wasn't supposed to go to the kitchens.

"Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they?" said Nearly Headless Nick. "They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning… see to the fires and so on... I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good house-elf, isn't it, that you don't know it's there?" Hermione stared at him.

"But they get paid?" she said. "They get holidays, don't they? And… and sick leave, and pensions and everything?"

Nearly Headless Nick chortled so much that his ruff slipped and his head flopped off, dangling on the inch or so of ghostly skin and muscle that still attached it to his neck.

"Sick leave and pensions?" he said, pushing his head back onto his shoulders and securing it once more with his ruff. "House-elves don't want sick leave and pensions!"

Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her.

"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee." said Ron, accidentally spraying Rose with bits of Yorkshire pudding. "Oops… sorry, 'ose…" He swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!"

"Slave labor." said Hermione, breathing hard through her nose. "That's what made this dinner. Slave labor." And she refused to eat another bite.

The rain was still drumming heavily against the high, dark glass. Another clap of thunder shook the windows and the stormy ceiling flashed, illuminating the golden plates as the remains of the first course vanished and were replaced, instantly, with puddings.

"Treacle tart, Hermione!" said Ron, deliberately wafting its smell toward her. "Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!"

But Hermione gave him a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he gave up. When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again.

The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered."

"Hmph!" said Hermione.

"I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?!" Rose gasped. She looked around at Fred and George, her fellow members of the Quidditch team. They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak. Dumbledore went on.

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy… but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling.

He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table. A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling.

Hermione gasped.

The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any Rose had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash and a large chunk of the nose was missing.

But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening. One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye… and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all they could see was whiteness.

The stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbhedore shook it, muttering words Rose couldn't hear. He seemed to be making some inquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in an undertone.

Dumbledore nodded and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side. The stranger sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose and sniffed it.

He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students clapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid, who both put their hands together and applauded, but the sound echoed dismally into the silence and they stopped fairly quickly.

Everyone else seemed too transfixed by Moody's bizarre appearance to do more than stare at him. "Moody?" Rose muttered to Ron. "Mad-Eye Moody? The one your dad went to help this morning?" "Must be." said Ron in a low, awed voice.

"What happened to him?" Hermione whispered. "What happened to his face?"

"Dunno." Ron whispered back, watching Moody with fascination.

Moody seemed totally indifferent to his less-than-warm welcome. Ignoring the jug of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached again into his traveling cloak, pulled out a hip flask and took a long draught from it. As he lifted his arm to drink, his cloak was pulled a few inches from the ground, and Rose saw, below the table, several inches of carved wooden leg, ending in a clawed foot.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I was saying." he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody.

"We are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred Weasley loudly. The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley." he said. "Though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er… but maybe this is not the time... no…" said Dumbledore. "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament… well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation and allow their attention to wander freely. The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities… until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" Hermione whispered, looking alarmed. But her anxiety did not seem to be shared by the majority of students in the Hall, many of them were whispering excitedly to one another and Rose herself was far more interested in hearing about the tournament than in worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago. They wouldn't be restarting if they hadn't found measures to counter this.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament." Dumbledore continued. "None of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger. The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Fred Weasley hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches. He was not the only person who seemed to be visualizing himself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table, Rose could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore, or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. But then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts." he said. "The heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age… that is to say, seventeen years or older… will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This…"

Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious.

"…is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion."

His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces.

"I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody.

There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall.

"They can't do that!" said George Weasley, who had not joined the crowd moving toward the door, but was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"They're not stopping me entering." said Fred stubbornly, also scowling at the top table. "The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"

"Yeah." said Ron, a faraway look on his face. "Yeah, a thousand Galleons…"

"Come on." said Hermione. "We'll be the only ones left here if you don't move."

Rose, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George set off for the entrance hall, Fred and George debating the ways in which Dumbledore might stop those who were under seventeen from entering the tournament.

"Who's this impartial judge who's going to decide who the champions are?" said Rose.

"Dunno." said Fred. "But it's them we'll have to fool. I reckon a couple of drops of Aging Potion might do it, George…"

"Dumbledore knows you're not of age, though." said Ron.

"Yeah, but he's not the one who decides who the champion is, is he?" said Fred shrewdly. "Sounds to me like once this judge knows who wants to enter, he'll choose the best from each school and never mind how old they are. Dumbledore's trying to stop us giving our names."

"People have died, though!" said Hermione in a worried voice as they walked through a door concealed behind a tapestry and started up another, narrower staircase.

"Yeah." said Fred airily. "But that was years ago, wasn't it? Anyway, where's the fun without a bit of risk? Hey, Ron, what if we find out how to get 'round Dumbledore? Fancy entering?"

"What d'you reckon?" Ron asked Rose. "Be cool to enter, wouldn't it? But I s'pose they might want someone older... Dunno if we've learned enough…"

"You know, I don't really want to…" Rose said. Fred, George and Ron looked at her with surprise.

"Why not? I reckon you'll have the biggest chance to win, with what you already went through…" Fred said with surprise.

"Exactly why I don't want to." Rose said fiercely. "I have been through enough, I'll be just fine watching others risk their lives for once. I just want a quiet year for once."

George looked at her with a weird look in his eyes. Rose almost identified it as admiration before she quickly pushed it out of her head.

"Besides, each year I barely escaped alive. I definitively hadn't learned enough for those situations, let alone a competition with other people who have."

"I definitely haven't." Came Nevihle's gloomy voice from behind Fred and George. "I expect my gran'd want me to try, though. She's always going on about how I should be upholding the family honor. I'll just have to… oops…"

Neville's foot had sunk right through a step halfway up the staircase. There were many of these trick stairs at Hogwarts, it was second nature to most of the older students to jump this particular step, but Neville's memory was notoriously poor.

Rose and Ron seized him under the armpits and pulled him out, while a suit of armor at the top of the stairs creaked and clanked, laughing wheezily.

"Shut it, you." said Ron, banging down its visor as they passed.

They made their way up to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, which was concealed behind a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said as they approached.

"Balderdash." said George. "A prefect downstairs told me."

The portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall through which they all climbed. A crackling fire warmed the circular common room, which was full of squashy armchairs and tables.

Hermione cast the merrily dancing flames a dark look and Rose distinctly heard her mutter "Slave labor" before bidding them good night and disappearing through the doorway to the girls' dormitory. Rose joined her.

Five four-poster beds with deep crimson hangings stood against the walls, each with its owner's trunk at the foot. The other girls were already getting into bed.

Rose and Hermione got into their pajamas and into bed.

Someone… a house-elf, no doubt… had placed warming pans between the sheets. It was extremely comfortable, lying there in bed and listening to the storm raging outside. Rose heard a clang and when she looked to her side she saw how Hermione's bedpan was lying on the ground.

Rose had to suppress a chuckle.

"Who do you think will try to join?" Hermione said.

"Well Fred and George for one, but I honestly don't think they'll succeed. Not when Dumbledore is going to take precautions."

Hermione made a humming sound, agreeing with her.

"Do you think Cedric will try?"

Rose's heart suddenly sank. He turned 17 this month. She really didn't want him to join, she realized. Being with her is enough of a bullseye on his back. She thought back to the promise he had made this summer and her heart swelled again. Rose decided she would state her opinion just once, if he decided he still wanted to join she'd support him as much as she could. Just like he always does for her.

"I really don't know… I don't want him to, but it's his decision and I'll support him no matter what."

"You know Rose, when I have a relationship of my own with someone, I want it to be just like yours. You guys are so honest and supportive to each other…"

Rose smiled.

"Thank you, Hermione. I hope so as well."

Both girls where silent before the darkness claimed them.

* * *

Hey guy's,

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

So I'm going on vacation next week :) I have some stuff prepared for you guy's so I'll keep updating.

But It's going to go a bit slower for a few weeks, especially since I'm closing in on the point I was on AO3.

I'll try to keep up the weekly updates with this one, but don't shoot me when it's a bit later.

I know I haven't been too active on twitter, but I'm planning on changing that after my vacation.

I'll keep you posted!

XXX D.


	13. Chapter 13: Mad-eye Moody

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MAD-EYE MOODY

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy, heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Rose, Ron and Hermione examined their new course schedules at breakfast.

A few seats along, Fred, George and Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.

"Today's not bad… outside all morning." said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule.

"Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures... damn it, we're still with the Slytherins…"

"Double Divination this afternoon." Rose groaned, looking down. Divination was her least favorite subject. Professor Trelawney kept predicting Rose's death, which she found extremely annoying. "You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."

"You're eating again, I notice." said Ron, watching Hermione adding liberal amounts of jam to her toast too.

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights." said Hermione haughtily. "Yeah… and you were hungry." said Ron, grinning.

There was a sudden rustling noise above them and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail.

Instinctively, Rose looked up, but there was no sign of white among the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. A large tawny owl soared down to Neville Longbottom and deposited a parcel into his lap… Neville almost always forgot to pack something.

On the other side of the Hall Draco Malfoy's eagle owl had landed on his shoulder, carrying what looked like his usual supply of sweets and cakes from home. Trying to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment in her stomach, Rose returned to her porridge.

Was it possible that something had happened to Hedwig and that Sirius hadn't even got her letter?

Her preoccupation lasted all the way across the sodden vegetable patch until they arrived in greenhouse three, but here she was distracted by Professor Sprout showing the class the ugliest plants Rose had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil.

Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.

"Bubotubers." Professor Sprout told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus…" "The what?" said Seamus Finnigan, sounding revolted.

"Pus, Finnigan, pus." said Professor Sprout. "And it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves, it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus."

Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints.

"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy." said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."

"Like poor Eloise Midgen." said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."

"Silly girl." said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."

A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated, the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid was standing outside his hut, one hand on the collar of his enormous black boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet and Fang was whimpering and straining at his collar, apparently keen to investigate the contents more closely.

As they drew nearer, an odd rattling noise reached their ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions.

"Mornin'!" Hagrid said, grinning at Rose, Ron and Hermione. "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this… Blast-Ended Skrewts!"

"Come again?" said Ron. Hagrid pointed down into the crates.

"Eurgh!" squealed Lavender Brown, jumping backward. "Eurgh" just about summed up the Blast-Ended Skrewts in Rose's opinion.

They looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes.

They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish.

Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt and with a small phut, it would be propelled forward several inches.

"On'y jus' hatched." said Hagrid proudly. "So yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice. The Slytherins had arrived. The speaker was Draco Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling appreciatively at his words. Hagrid looked stumped at the question.

"I mean, what do they do?" asked Malfoy. "What is the point of them?"

Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard, there was a few seconds' pause, then he said roughly.

"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things… I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer - I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake - just try 'em out with a bit of each."

"First pus and now this." muttered Seamus.

Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have made Rose, Ron, and Hermione pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts.

Rose couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless, because the skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.

"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. "It got me." Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious.

"It's end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.

"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off." said Hagrid, nodding.

"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"

"Ah, some of 'em have got stings." said Hagrid enthusiastically, Lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box.

"I reckon they're the males… The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies... I think they might be ter suck blood."

"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive." said Malfoy sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting and bite all at once?"

"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful." Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"

Rose and Ron grinned at Hagrid, who gave them a furtive smile from behind his bushy beard. Hagrid would have liked nothing better than a pet dragon, as Rose, Ron, and Hermione knew only too well… he had owned one for a brief period during their first year, a vicious Norwegian Ridgeback by the name of Norbert.

Hagrid simply loved monstrous creatures, the more lethal, the better.

"Well, at least the skrewts are small." said Ron as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.

"They are now." said Hermione in an exasperated voice. "But once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."

"Well, that won't matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" said Ron, grinning slyly at her.

"You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up." said Hermione. "As a matter of fact I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all."

They sat down at the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to lamb chops and potatoes. Hermione began to eat so fast that Rose and Ron stared at her.

"Er… is this the new stand on elf rights?" said Ron. "You're going to make yourself puke instead?" "No." said Hermione, with as much dignity as she could muster with her mouth bulging with sprouts. "I just want to get to the library."

"What?" said Ron in disbelief. "Hermione… it's the first day back! We haven't even got homework yet!"

Hermione shrugged and continued to shovel down her food as though she had not eaten for days. Then she leapt to her feet.

"See you at dinner!" And she departed at high speed.

When the bell rang to signal the start of afternoon lessons, Rose and Ron set off for North Tower where, at the top of a tightly spiraling staircase, a silver stepladder led to a circular trapdoor in the ceiling and the room where Professor Trelawney lived.

The familiar sweet perfume spreading from the fire met their nostrils as they emerged at the top of the stepladder. As ever, the curtains were all closed, the circular room was bathed in a dim reddish light cast by the many lamps, which were all draped with scarves and shawls.

Rose and Ron walked through the mass of occupied chintz chairs and poufs that cluttered the room and sat down at the same small circular table.

"Good day." said the misty voice of Professor Trelawney right behind Rose, making her jump. A very thin woman with enormous glasses that made her eyes appear far too large for her face, Professor Trelawney was peering down at Rose with the tragic expression she always wore whenever she saw her.

The usual large amount of beads, chains and bangles glittered upon her person in the firelight.

"You are preoccupied, my dear." she said mournfully to Rose. "My inner eye sees past your brave face to the troubled soul within. And I regret to say that your worries are not baseless. I see difficult times ahead for you, alas… most difficult... I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass... and perhaps sooner than you think..."

Her voice dropped almost to a whisper.

Ron rolled his eyes at Rose, who looked stonily back.

Professor Trelawney swept past them and seated herself in a large winged armchair before the fire, facing the class. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who deeply admired Professor Trelawney, were sitting on poufs very close to her.

"My dears, it is time for us to consider the stars." she said. "The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle…"

But Rose's thoughts had drifted. The perfumed fire always made her feel sleepy and dull-witted, and Professor Trelawney's rambling talks on fortune-telling never held her exactly spellbound… though she couldn't help thinking about what she had just said to her.

"I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass...'" But Hermione was right, Rose thought irritably, Professor Trelawney really was an old fraud. She wasn't dreading anything at the moment at all... well, unless you counted her fears that Sirius had been caught… but what did Professor Trelawney know?

She had long since come to the conclusion that her brand of fortunetelling was really no more than lucky guesswork and a spooky manner. Except, of course, for that time at the end of last term, when she had made the prediction about Voldemort rising again... and Dumbledore himself had said that he thought that trance had been genuine, when Rose had described it to him.

"Rose!" Ron muttered.

"What?" Rose looked around, the whole class was staring at her. She sat up straight, she had been almost dozing off, lost in the heat and his thoughts.

"I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the baleful influence of Saturn." said Professor Trelawney, a faint note of resentment in her voice at the fact that she had obviously not been hanging on her words.

"Born under… what, sorry?" said Rose.

"Saturn, dear, the planet Saturn!" said Professor Trelawney, sounding definitely irritated that she wasn't riveted by this news. "I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth. Your red hair… your mean stature... tragic losses so young in life... I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter?"

"No." said Rose. "I was born in July."

Ron hastily turned his laugh into a hacking cough.

Half an hour later, each of them had been given a complicated circular chart and was attempting to fill in the position of the planets at their moment of birth. It was dull work, requiring much consultation of timetables and calculation of angles.

"I've got two Neptunes here." said Ron after a while, frowning down at his piece of parchment. "That can't be right, can it?"

"Aaaaah." said Rose, imitating Professor Trelawney's mystical whisper. "When two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget cursed with the paralyzing fear of spiders is being born, Ron."

Seamus and Dean, who were working nearby, sniggered loudly, though not loudly enough to mask the excited squeals from Lavender Brown.

"Oh Professor, look! I think I've got an unaspected planet! Oooh, which one's that, Professor?"

"It is Uranus, my dear." said Professor Trelawney, peering down at the chart.

"Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?" said Ron.

Most unfortunately, Professor Trelawney heard him and it was this, perhaps, that made her give them so much homework at the end of the class.

"A detailed analysis of the way the planetary movements in the coming month will affect you, with reference to your personal chart." she snapped, sounding much more like Professor McGonagall than her usual airy-fairy self. "I want it ready to hand in next Monday, and no excuses!"

"Miserable old bat." said Ron bitterly as they joined the crowds descending the staircases back to the Great Hall and dinner. "That'll take all weekend, that will…"

"Lots of homework?" said Hermione brightly, catching up with them. "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!"

"Well, bully for Professor Vector." said Ron moodily. They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!" Rose, Ron, and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.

"What?" said Ron shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear.

"Listen to this!"

FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.

Malfoy looked up.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed. Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on.

Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers "policemen" over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house… if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?" Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.

"Buzz off, Malfoy." said Rose.

"C'mon, Ron…"

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So, tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

This incited a loud, hostile growl from Ron and he leap forward, to be stopped by Rose.

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Rose… both she and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy.

"That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"If you dislike it so much, why the hell are you insulting other people's mothers then! Hypocrite!" Snapped Rose loudly, venom in her voice.

This stunned Malfoy for a second and Rose had to suppress the urge to scratch his eyes out. Normally Malfoy didn't infuriate her this much, but she was getting murderous at his behavior now, she had seen a different side to him this summer and it made her blood boil that he buried that side so deep within him. She calmed her nerves, turning away.

BANG!

Several people screamed… Rose felt something white-hot graze the side of her face.

She plunged her hand into her robes for her wand, but before she'd even touched it, she heard a second loud "BANG", and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" Rose spun around.

Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.

There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle.

Moody turned to look at Rose… at least, his normal eye was looking at Rose, the other one was pointing into the back of his head.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.

"No…" said Rose, stunned about what Malfoy had done. "He missed."

"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted.

"Leave… what?" Rose said, bewildered.

"Not you… him!" Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe, who had just frozen, about to pick up the white ferret.

It seemed that Moody's rolling eye was magical and could see out of the back of his head. Moody started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle and the ferret, which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again, it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor and then bounced upward once more.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned." growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain.

"Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..." The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly.

"Never… do… that… again…" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.

"Euhm… professor, i… isn't that enough?" Rose couldn't help but stutter while watching the fear and pain in the ferret's eyes. This was a bit harsh.

Before Moody could react though another voice cut through the great hall.

"Professor Moody!" Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall." said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.

"What… what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.

"Teaching." said Moody.

"Teach… Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

"Yep." said Moody.

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand, a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall wealdy. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah." said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly. "But I thought a good sharp shock…"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then." said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.

Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable.

"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy… You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son... you tell him that from me… Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"

"Yes." said Malfoy resentfully.

"Another old friend." growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape… Come on, you..." And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.

Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.

"Don't talk to me." Ron said quietly to Rose and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.

"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever." said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."

Rose and Hermione both laughed, albeit a bit hesitant, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates.

"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though." she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it…"

"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again. "You're ruining the best moment of my life!" Hermione made an impatient noise and began to eat at top speed again.

"Don't tell me you're going back to the library this evening?" said Ron, watching her.

"Got to." said Hermione thickly. "Loads to do."

"But you told us Professor Vector…"

"It's not schoolwork." she said. Within five minutes, she had cleared her plate and departed. No sooner had she gone than her seat was taken by Fred Weasley.

"Moody!" he said. "How cool is he?"

"Beyond cool." said George, sitting down opposite Fred.

"Supercool." said the twins' best friend, Lee Jordan, sliding into the seat beside George.

"We had him this afternoon." he told Rose and Ron.

"What was it like?" said Ron eagerly. Fred, George, and Lee exchanged looks full of meaning.

"Never had a lesson like it." said Fred.

"He knows, man." said Lee.

"Knows what?" said Rose, leaning forward.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it." said George impressively.

"Doing what?" said Ron.

"Fighting the Dark Arts," said Fred.

"He's seen it all." said George.

"Mazing." said Lee.

Ron dived into his bag for his schedule.

"We haven't got him till Thursday!" he said in a disappointed voice.

Rose shrugged and concentrated on her food.

She wasn't looking forward to the lesson as Ron did. She couldn't deny that his lessons probably will be sensational but something really bothered her about what he had done.

Malfoy may not be her most favorite person in the world but that was cruel and probably traumatizing.

The thought of being forced into an animal form unwillingly made her shudder.

Swooning sounds suddenly filled the table and Rose looked up. The girls at the table made big longing eyes at a point behind her and Rose had to smirk.

"Hey Cedric." She said without turning around.

"W… how did you know?" Cedric said surprised.

"Oh I've discovered last night that I can read minds." Rose said smiling while turning around and standing up.

Cedric seemed shocked and Rose couldn't help enjoying teasing him. She got on her toes and kissed him on the cheek bringing her lips faintly to his ear.

"Oh my, I didn't know you had such thoughts Ced, you surprise me." Rose whispered teasingly.

When she pulled back Cedric was bright red and stammering.

"I… what did you... why… are you…"

Rose laughed loudly and looked at Ron.

"I'll be up later okay?"

She pulled Cedric by the hand and left the great hall with him.

When in the entrance hall she looked up at Cedric and he was still bright red and wide-eyed.

She couldn't help but laugh again, almost crying while doing so.

When her fit of laughter dried down she put his mind at ease.

"Don't worry, I was teasing you. I can't read minds. Although seeing your reaction, I sorta wish I could, what were you thinking about?"

Cedric frowned.

"Then how did you know I was standing behind you."

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because all the girls at the table suddenly made swooning sounds."

"So you can't…?"

"No silly."

Cedric groaned.

"But now I'm really curious, what were you thinking about?"

Cedric pulled her into his arms and brought his lips to her ears like she had done moments ago.

"I was thinking that I want to kiss you senseless."

Cedric pulled back with a happy grin as it was Rose's turn to blush like an idiot.

He laughed and put an arm around her while they continued walking through the halls.

"Too bad the weather isn't nice." Rose muttered while trying to keep her blush under control.

"Yeah, we can't really relax outside. We'll have to roam the halls."

"Too bad the sofa's are only in the common rooms."

Suddenly Cedric pulled Rose behind a column in a corner. His lips crashed on her and his arms gripped her tightly towards him. Pressing their chests together.

Rose hummed and responded to the kiss.

This kiss felt needy and hungerly. Pulling each other closer, igniting each other's skin with each touch.

Rose felt as if her heart was swelling and it was beating at a peace as if she was running a marathon.

One hand grasped his clothes to pull him closer and the other was roaming his chest.

His hand was around her waist and the other had found solace in her hair.

After an eternity that passed too soon they broke apart, panting.

"I've been wanting to do that for so long." Cedric muttered softly.

"I'm glad you did." Rose answered brightly.

They held each other for a while, hearts beating in unison.

"After this summer with you, I feel like a drunk whose alcohol has been snatched away." Cedric confessed.

"I feel the same, I miss your sofa." Rose said teasingly.

Cedric chuckled.

The heard footsteps approaching and the couple swiftly sidestepped from behind the column, continuing their walk as if nothing had happened. Trying to keep what they had just done just between them.

"Hey Cedric!"

The footsteps started running.

Cedric and Rose turned around to see some of his friends running towards them.

"Hi Rose!" A gold blonde boy with blue eyes greeted her. If Rose remembered correctly his name was Dave. Two other boys greeted her as well, both with raven black hair. One was a bit heavier than the other. He was also a head taller and had a soft round face. The other had a harder face with a jaw like a square and a big nose.

The bigger one was Anthony and the other was Tim.

Both greeted her as well.

"Cedric, we heard that Luke wants to sign up for the tournament as well." Dave said.

"You don't have to worry though, he's a total sap. I'm sure they'll pick you." Anthony added.

Rose's heart sank, so he wanted to sign up. She tried her best to keep the happy smile on her face while her stomach turned to ice.

Cedric quickly shot her a glance. Was that worry?

"You still want to do it right?" Tim exclaimed.

"I told you, I…" Cedric started.

"Yeah.. yeah check with your girl." Dave said, turning his attention to Rose, his look a bit stern. "You'll support him right? With all the adventures you have endured?"

Rose's eyes widened. She hated this.

They put her on the spot and she had wanted to discuss this privately.

"I…"

"Common guy's, I haven't gotten the chance to talk with her."

"You do now." Anthony said. All three boys were looking at her, waiting.

Cedric's jaw clenched and he took a step forward.

"Yes, but I'd rather do it privately."

"But…" Anthony said.

"Guy's I think that's our cue to buzz off." Tim suddenly said.

Dave and Anthony looked from Cedric to Tim and seemed to get the message.

"Well see you in the common room?" Dave said.

"Yeah sure…" Cedric said with a sharpness in his voice.

Anthony just turned around and started walking.

"See you later Rose." Dave said a smile back on his face, an apology in his eyes.

"Yeah see ya." Tim said with a wink and they left.

When they were out of earshot Cedric turned towards Rose.

"I'm sorry about that. I told them… I wanted to talk to you about this. Without them budding in."

"So you want to compete in the tournament?" Rose asked with a small heart.

"Yes."

"And this is what you want, not them?" Rose added, a bit scared.

"This is what I want to do, yes." Cedric said without hesitation. "But only if you agree."

"Why? I've never asked." Rose said surprised.

Cedric chuckled.

"That's what they said as well and I'll tell you the same thing I told them. It's not like you had time to ask the moment it happened. It's not like you had a choice, because if you did you wouldn't do it."

Rose smiled, he knew her so well.

"So what do you want me to do?" Cedric asked.

She looked at him and hesitated, his face was kind of hopeful and her stomach dropped even more.

Rose sighed.

"Listen, me, I'd rather you didn't. It's dangerous and I've had enough of danger for a long time, even though I don't think that's going to end for a while…"

Cedric's face fell, hope being flushed out.

"But… I support you no matter what. If you want to do this, I'm not going to be the one holding you back. I can see you really want to do this, so go for it." Rose said, smiling softly at him.

Cedric hesitated.

"Besides, better danger with supervision and precaution then what I've been going through. I have no doubt on my mind you have a great shot at winning."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Rose took his hand and squeezed it softly. "Besides, could be a good training for what you'll have to face when you stick with me."

A bright smile appeared on his face and he kissed and her.

Rose was holding on to him like she was adrift and he was the only thing keeping her above water. A cold fear settled in her stomach but she loved him, and she'd never stand in his way.


End file.
